ceivscerTell them apart

Quick tell: cei is a article, cer is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#31,876
“cei” frequency rank
#46,052
“cer” frequency rank
77928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cei cer
Definition Article adjectival (ou démonstratif) nominatif et accusatif masculin pluriel, généralement traduit par « les ». Ciel.

Letter map: cei vs cer

Shared letters muted; letters that set cei and cer apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. cei (CVV) and cer (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
cei
3 ch
cer

Grammar separator: cei vs cer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cei is anarticle and ceranoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “cei” becomes r in “cer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cei is recorded at frequency rank #31,876, classified as anarticle. cer is at rank #46,052, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈʧeɾ\.

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 77928, this pair ranks #27,069 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cei vs cer

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cei": i. Private to "cer": r.

"cei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "cer" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cei" and "cer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cei" is an article and "cer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cei" vs "cer" - which ranks higher?
"cei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,876 in our French list, against #46,052 for "cer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "cei" vs "cer" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,069 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cei" and "cer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cer vs ciro". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #27,069 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