Which to use
“clémence” is a noun and “commencé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,743
- “clémence” frequency rank
- #916
- “commencé” frequency rank
- 13659
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clémence | commencé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vertu qui consiste à pardonner les offenses et à modérer les châtiments en parlant de ceux qui disposent de l’autorité souveraine et par extension, de toute personne ayant un certain pouvoir. | Participe passé masculin singulier de commencer. |
Where the eye mixes clémence and commencé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. clémence (CCVCVCCV) and commencé (CVCCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: clémence vs commencé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clémence is \kle.mɑ̃s\ while commencé is \kɔ.mɑ̃.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13659, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clémence is recorded at frequency rank #12,743, classified as anoun, pronounced \kle.mɑ̃s\. commencé is at rank #916, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.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 13659, this pair ranks #400,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of clémence vs commencé
Shared letters: cemné. Private to "clémence": l. Private to "commencé": o.
"clémence" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV · "commencé" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clémence" and "commencé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "clémence" or "commencé" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "clémence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commencé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clémence" and "commencé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clémence vs clémente". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #400,090 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.