cecivsceiTell them apart

Quick tell: ceci is a pronoun, cei is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ceci” is a pronoun and “cei” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#959
“ceci” frequency rank
#31,876
“cei” frequency rank
32835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ceci cei
Definition Pronom démonstratif neutre désignant un objet situé à proximité de la personne qui parle ou une image située à proximité du mot. Article adjectival (ou démonstratif) nominatif et accusatif masculin pluriel, généralement traduit par « les ».

Letter map: ceci vs cei

Shared letters muted; letters that set ceci and cei apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. ceci runs 4 letters (CVCV) against cei's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
ceci
3 ch
cei

Role in the sentence - ceci and cei

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ceci is apronoun and ceianarticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ceci is recorded at frequency rank #959, classified as apron, pronounced \sə.si\. cei is at rank #31,876, tagged as anarticle.

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 32835, this pair ranks #294,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ceci vs cei

Shared letters: cei. Private to "ceci": -. Private to "cei": -.

"ceci" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ceci ← cceci · ccei · cecci · ceic · ecci

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ceci" and "cei" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ceci" is a pronoun and "cei" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ceci" or "cei"?
"ceci" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #959 in our French list, against #31,876 for "cei". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ceci" and "cei".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ceci" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #294,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ceci" and "cei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cei". 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 #294,631 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