vendusvsvertusTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#5,087
“vendus” frequency rank
#8,634
“vertus” frequency rank
13721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vendus vertus
Definition Masculin pluriel du participe passé de vendre. Un des chœurs de la hiérarchie des anges.

Where the eye mixes vendus and vertus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
vendus
6 ch
vertus

Look-alike desk: vendus vs vertus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vendus is \vɑ̃.dy\ while vertus is \vɛʁ.ty\. 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 13721, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vendus is recorded at frequency rank #5,087, classified as averb, pronounced \vɑ̃.dy\. vertus is at rank #8,634, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɛʁ.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 13721, this pair ranks #399,814 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vendus vs vertus

Shared letters: esuv. Private to "vendus": dn. Private to "vertus": rt.

"vendus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "vertus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vendusevndus · vednus · venddus · vendsu · venduss · venndus · venuds · vnedus
  • vertusevrtus · verrtus · vertsu · verttus · vertuss · veruts · vetrus · vretus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vendus" for "vertus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vendus" is a verb and "vertus" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "vendus" or "vertus" show up more?
"vendus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,087 in our French list, against #8,634 for "vertus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "vendus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vertus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #399,814 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vendus" and "vertus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verrues vs vertus". 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 #399,814 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