vendsvsvenuTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,479
“vends” frequency rank
#1,306
“venu” frequency rank
9785
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vends venu
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de vendre. Participe passé masculin singulier de venir.

Where the eye mixes vends and venu

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

5 ch
vends
4 ch
venu

Visual trap between vends and venu

A purely visual mix-up. vends (\vɑ̃\) and venu (\və.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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vends is recorded at frequency rank #8,479, classified as averb, pronounced \vɑ̃\. venu is at rank #1,306, tagged as averb, pronounced \və.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 9785, this pair ranks #415,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vends vs venu

Shared letters: env. Private to "vends": ds. Private to "venu": u.

"vends" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "venu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vendsevnds · vedns · vendds · vendss · vennds · vensd · vneds · vvends
  • venuevnu · vennu · veun · vneu · vvenu

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vends" and "venu" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\vɑ̃\ versus \və.ny\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vends" vs "venu" - which ranks higher?
"venu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,306 in our French list, against #8,479 for "vends". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vends" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "venu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #415,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vends" and "venu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vends vs veufs". 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 #415,415 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