cervsceuxConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#46,052
“cer” frequency rank
#175
“ceux” frequency rank
46227
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cer ceux
Definition Ciel. Masculin pluriel de celui.

Where the eye mixes cer and ceux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cer runs 3 letters (CVC) against ceux's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
cer
4 ch
ceux

Why the eye confuses cer with ceux

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cer is \ˈʧeɾ\ while ceux is \sø\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46227, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cer is recorded at frequency rank #46,052, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈʧeɾ\. ceux is at rank #175, tagged as apron, pronounced \sø\.

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 46227, this pair ranks #196,586 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cer vs ceux

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cer": r. Private to "ceux": ux.

"cer" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "ceux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ceux ← cceux · ceuxx · cexu · cuex · ecux

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cer" for "ceux" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cer" is a noun and "ceux" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cer" vs "ceux" - which ranks higher?
"ceux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #175 in our French list, against #46,052 for "cer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cer" and "ceux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ceux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,586 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cer" and "ceux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cer vs ciro". 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 #196,586 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