CDS vs ces, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#28,477
“CDS” frequency rank: #74
“ces” frequency rank: 28551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	CDS	ces
Definition	Séquence codante, région d'une séquence d'ADN codant une séquence d'acides aminés de protéine.	Pluriel de ce et cette.

Where the eye mixes CDS and ces

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

CDS

3 ch

ces

Why the eye confuses CDS with ces

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: CDS is \se.de.ɛs\ while ces is \se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “CDS” becomes e in “ces”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28551, 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\. 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 28551, this pair ranks #322,084 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of CDS vs ces

Shared letters: cs. Private to "CDS": d. Private to "ces": e.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"ces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #74 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 "ces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #322,084 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"CDS" and "ces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CDS". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #322,084 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.