Which to use
“tenter” is a verb and “textes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,723
- “tenter” frequency rank
- #1,642
- “textes” frequency rank
- 3365
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tenter | textes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Essayer, éprouver ou mettre en usage quelque moyen pour faire réussir quelque chose. | Pluriel de texte. |
Where the eye mixes tenter and textes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses tenter with textes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tenter is \tɑ̃.te\ while textes is \tɛkst\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3365, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tenter is recorded at frequency rank #1,723, classified as averb, pronounced \tɑ̃.te\. textes is at rank #1,642, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛkst\.
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 3365, this pair ranks #434,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tenter vs textes
Shared letters: et. Private to "tenter": nr. Private to "textes": sx.
"tenter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "textes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tenter" for "textes" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "tenter" or "textes" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tenter" and "textes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tenter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "textes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tenter" and "textes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tender vs tenter". 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 #434,207 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.