Word Confusion: Fends versus Fens

Posted March 8, 2022 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
18 Nov 2022

I’m hoping to go with the writer simply skipping the “d” when they wrote that “she fens her opponent away”.

For one, fens is not a verb but a plural noun referring to marshy land.

As for fends, it is primarily a plural noun and the third person present verb of fend, which refers to defense or providing for oneself. Various dictionaries do mention the use of fend as a noun, but I’ve never encountered it. Which doesn’t necessarily mean anything *grin*, but it’s gotta be archaic!

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Fends	Fens
Jasmine Brunson (21) Fends Off Cornell’s Caitlyn Smith (10) by Lori Shaull is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr.	Sunset Moor Venn, Belgium, by herbert2512 is in the public domain, via FreeIMG. — The High Fens in Belgium.
Part of Grammar:
Third person present verb of fend Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: fends Gerund: fending Third person present verb: fends Past tense or past participle: fended Present participle: fending	Plural for the noun fen Noun Plural: fens
Noun: [Scot and Northern English dialect] A shift or effort, especially for oneself [UK dialectal] An enemy Fiend The Devil Verb, intransitive: [fend for oneself] Look after and provide for oneself, without any help from others To shift Provide To resist or make defense To parry Fence Verb, transitive: [Often followed by off] To ward off To defend	A low and marshy or frequently flooded area of land [the Fens] Flat low-lying areas of eastern England, formerly marshland but largely drained for agriculture since the 17th century [Ecology] Wetland with alkaline, neutral, or only slightly acid peaty soil
Examples:
Noun: He made a good fend. Ye be a fend and we must fend ye off. Verb, intransitive: You’re old enough to fend for yourself. We left Mandy to fend against the cold. She never knew her parents and had to fend for herself since she was a child. Verb, transitive: She struggled to fend off the blows from her attacker. Meredith tried frantically to fend him off. He fended off the awkward questions.	He has 55 acres of fen. The storm flooded the fen. The Fens is a low-lying, level terrain with much of the land below sea level, relying on pumped drainage and the control of sluices at high and low tides to maintain its agricultural viability. Most fens are the result of being located below sea level. The wetland is a large sedge- and sphagnum-dominated lakeside fen and cattail marsh that supports one of the most diverse wetland bird communities in the state.
Derivatives:
	Adjective: fenny
Phrasal Verb
fend off
History of the Word:
Middle English as a shortening of defend in the sense force back.	Old English fen(n) is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch veen and the German Fenn.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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