tendervstentezTell them apart

Quick tell: tender is a noun, tentez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tender” is a noun and “tentez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,393
“tender” frequency rank
#18,341
“tentez” frequency rank
67734
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tender tentez
Definition Bateau annexe d'un paquebot, d'un yacht, destiné à transporter des bagages, du combustible ou de munitions, transborder des passagers, etc. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de tenter.

Where the eye mixes tender and tentez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tender and tentez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
tender
6 ch
tentez

Why the eye confuses tender with tentez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tender is \tɑ̃.dɛʁ\ while tentez is \tɑ̃.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tender is recorded at frequency rank #49,393, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃.dɛʁ\. tentez is at rank #18,341, tagged as averb, pronounced \tɑ̃.te\.

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 67734, this pair ranks #62,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tender vs tentez

Shared letters: ent. Private to "tender": dr. Private to "tentez": z.

"tender" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "tentez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tender ← etnder · tedner · tendder · tenderr · tenedr · tennder · tneder · ttender
  • tentez ← etntez · tenetz · tenntez · tentezz · tenttez · tentze · tetnez · tnetez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tender" and "tentez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tender" is a noun and "tentez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "tender" or "tentez" show up more?
"tentez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,341 in our French list, against #49,393 for "tender". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tender" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tentez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tender" and "tentez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tender vs ténue". 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 #62,125 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