cesvscubesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#74
“ces” frequency rank
#12,350
“cubes” frequency rank
12424
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ces cubes
Definition Pluriel de ce et cette. Pluriel de cube.

Where the eye mixes ces and cubes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ces
5 ch
cubes

Visual trap between ces and cubes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ces is \se\ while cubes is \kyb\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12424, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ces is recorded at frequency rank #74, classified as adet, pronounced \se\. cubes is at rank #12,350, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyb\.

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 12424, this pair ranks #405,323 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ces vs cubes

Shared letters: ces. Private to "ces": -. Private to "cubes": bu.

"ces" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cubes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cubescbues · ccubes · cubbes · cubess · cubse · cuebs · ucbes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ces" for "cubes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ces" is a determiner and "cubes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ces" vs "cubes" - which ranks higher?
"ces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #74 in our French list, against #12,350 for "cubes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cubes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #405,323 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ces" and "cubes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs cubes". 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 #405,323 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