ceci vs cei, What's the Difference?

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 ».

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ceci and cei apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

ceci

3 ch

cei

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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

Frequency comparison

ceci#959

cei#31,876

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ceci" and "cei" be used interchangeably?

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.

Remembering ceci vs cei

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “ceci”; for an article, it's “cei”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ceci” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable