CDS vs ce, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#28,477
“CDS” frequency rank: #25
“ce” frequency rank: 28502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	CDS	ce
Definition	Séquence codante, région d'une séquence d'ADN codant une séquence d'acides aminés de protéine.	Déterminant utilisé pour mettre en évidence une chose ou une personne dont on a la représentation devant soi. Lorsque l’objet est en nombre multiple ou lorsqu’on veut appuyer encore plus sur ce qu’on veut montrer, on rajoute -ci ou -là (selon la distance) après le nom.

Where the eye mixes CDS and ce

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

3 ch

CDS

2 ch

Look-alike desk: CDS vs ce

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: CDS is \se.de.ɛs\ while ce is \sə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

CDS is recorded at frequency rank #28,477, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.de.ɛs\. ce is at rank #25, tagged as adet, pronounced \sə\.

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 28502, this pair ranks #322,381 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of CDS vs ce

Shared letters: c. Private to "CDS": ds. Private to "ce": e.

"CDS" · 3 letters · shape CCC · "ce" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "CDS" for "ce" ever safe?

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

In ordinary French text, does "CDS" or "ce" show up more?

"ce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25 in our French list, against #28,477 for "CDS". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "CDS" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ce" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #322,381 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"CDS" and "ce" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CDS". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #322,381 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.