CDC vs ces, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“CDC” is a noun and “ces” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,664
“CDC” frequency rank: #74
“ces” frequency rank: 20738
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	CDC	ces
Definition	Communauté de communes.	Pluriel de ce et cette.

Where the eye mixes CDC and ces

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

CDC

3 ch

ces

Why the eye confuses CDC with ces

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: CDC is \se.de.se\ while ces is \se\. 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 (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20738, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

CDC is recorded at frequency rank #20,664, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.de.se\. ces is at rank #74, tagged as adet, pronounced \se\.

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 20738, this pair ranks #366,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of CDC vs ces

Shared letters: c. Private to "CDC": d. Private to "ces": es.

"CDC" · 3 letters · shape CCC · "ces" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "CDC" and "ces" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "CDC" is a noun and "ces" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "CDC" or "ces"?

"ces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #74 in our French list, against #20,664 for "CDC". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "CDC" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #366,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"CDC" and "ces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CDC". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #366,741 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.