Which to use
“commandait” and “commençait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,738
- “commandait” frequency rank
- #8,520
- “commençait” frequency rank
- 36258
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commandait | commençait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de commander. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de commencer. |
Where the eye mixes commandait and commençait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: commandait vs commençait
A purely visual mix-up. commandait (\kɔ.mɑ̃.dɛ\) and commençait (\kɔ.mɑ̃.sɛ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commandait is recorded at frequency rank #27,738, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.dɛ\. commençait is at rank #8,520, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.sɛ\.
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 36258, this pair ranks #270,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of commandait vs commençait
Shared letters: acimnot. Private to "commandait": d. Private to "commençait": eç.
"commandait" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC · "commençait" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- commandait ← ccommandait · cmomandait · comamndait · comandait · commadnait · commanadit · commandaitt · commandati
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "commandait" and "commençait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "commandait" or "commençait" 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 "commandait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commençait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #270,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commandait" and "commençait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commandait vs commandite". 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 #270,848 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.