celivscesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: celi is a pronoun, ces is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#47,778
“celi” frequency rank
#74
“ces” frequency rank
47852
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature celi ces
Definition Celui. Pluriel de ce et cette.

Letter map: celi vs ces

Shared letters muted; letters that set celi and ces apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
celi
3 ch
ces

Grammar separator: celi vs ces

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: celi is apronoun and cesadeterminer. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

celi is recorded at frequency rank #47,778, classified as apron. 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 47852, this pair ranks #183,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of celi vs ces

Shared letters: ce. Private to "celi": il. Private to "ces": s.

"celi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ces" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • celicceli · celli · clei · ecli

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "celi" for "ces" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "celi" is a pronoun and "ces" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "celi" or "ces"?
"ces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #74 in our French list, against #47,778 for "celi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "celi" vs "ces" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "celi" 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 #183,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "celi" and "ces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "celi vs cese". 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 #183,642 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