Which to use
“tends” and “tenus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,000
- “tends” frequency rank
- #6,348
- “tenus” frequency rank
- 36348
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tends | tenus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de tendre. | Masculin pluriel du participe passé de tenir. |
Where the eye mixes tends and tenus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: tends vs tenus
A purely visual mix-up. tends (\tɑ̃\) and tenus (\tə.ny\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - d in “tends” becomes u in “tenus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36348, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tends is recorded at frequency rank #30,000, classified as averb, pronounced \tɑ̃\. tenus is at rank #6,348, tagged as averb, pronounced \tə.ny\.
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 36348, this pair ranks #270,240 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tends vs tenus
Shared letters: enst. Private to "tends": d. Private to "tenus": u.
"tends" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "tenus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tends" and "tenus" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "tends" or "tenus" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "tends" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tenus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #270,240 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tends" and "tenus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tender vs tends". 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 #270,240 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.