combinésvscommunesTell them apart

Which to use

“combinés” and “communes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,239
“combinés” frequency rank
#1,556
“communes” frequency rank
20795
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature combinés communes
Definition Masculin pluriel de combiné. Féminin pluriel de commun.

Where the eye mixes combinés and communes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. combinés and communes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
combinés
8 ch
communes

Visual trap between combinés and communes

A purely visual mix-up. combinés (\kɔ̃.bi.ne\) and communes (\kɔ.myn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20795, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

combinés is recorded at frequency rank #19,239, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.bi.ne\. communes is at rank #1,556, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.myn\.

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 20795, this pair ranks #366,461 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of combinés vs communes

Shared letters: cmnos. Private to "combinés": bié. Private to "communes": eu.

"combinés" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "communes" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • communes ← ccommunes · cmomunes · commnues · commuens · communess · communnes · communse · comumnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "combinés" for "communes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.bi.ne\ versus \kɔ.myn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "combinés" vs "communes" - which ranks higher?
"communes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,556 in our French list, against #19,239 for "combinés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "combinés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "communes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,461 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "combinés" and "communes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "combinés vs comptines". 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 #366,461 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