Which to use
“tenues” and “têtue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,564
- “tenues” frequency rank
- #42,667
- “têtue” frequency rank
- 49231
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tenues | têtue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de tenue. | Femme obstinée. |
Where the eye mixes tenues and têtue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tenues runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against têtue's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tenues with têtue
A purely visual mix-up. tenues (\tə.ny\) and têtue (\tɛ.ty\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49231, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tenues is recorded at frequency rank #6,564, classified as anoun, pronounced \tə.ny\. têtue is at rank #42,667, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛ.ty\.
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 49231, this pair ranks #172,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tenues vs têtue
Shared letters: etu. Private to "tenues": ns. Private to "têtue": ê.
"tenues" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "têtue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tenues ← etnues · teneus · tennues · tenuess · tenuse · teunes · tneues · ttenues
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tenues" and "têtue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "tenues" or "têtue"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tenues" and "têtue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tenues" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "têtue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tenues" and "têtue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ténue vs têtue". 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 #172,333 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.