tendevsterreConfusable pair

Which to use

“tende” and “terre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,580
“tende” frequency rank
#386
“terre” frequency rank
37966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tende terre
Definition → voir tende de tranche. Sol sur lequel nous marchons, sur lequel les maisons sont construites, qui produit et nourrit les végétaux.

Where the eye mixes tende and terre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tende
5 ch
terre

Look-alike desk: tende vs terre

A purely visual mix-up. tende (\tɑ̃d\) and terre (\tɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tende is recorded at frequency rank #37,580, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃d\. terre is at rank #386, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛʁ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 37966, this pair ranks #258,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tende vs terre

Shared letters: et. Private to "tende": dn. Private to "terre": r.

"tende" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "terre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tendeetnde · tedne · tendde · tened · tennde · tnede · ttende
  • terreetrre · tere · terer · trere · tterre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tende" for "terre" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tɑ̃d\ versus \tɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tende" vs "terre" - which ranks higher?
"terre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #386 in our French list, against #37,580 for "tende". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tende" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "terre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tende" and "terre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tende vs tender". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #258,690 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list