Which to use
“commande” is a noun and “commencé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,166
- “commande” frequency rank
- #916
- “commencé” frequency rank
- 3082
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commande | commencé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ordre donné à un fabricant, à un ouvrier, à un artiste de faire un certain ouvrage, ou à un marchand de faire une certaine livraison. | Participe passé masculin singulier de commencer. |
Where the eye mixes commande and commencé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses commande with commencé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: commande is \kɔ.mɑ̃d\ 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 3082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commande is recorded at frequency rank #2,166, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃d\. 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 3082, this pair ranks #434,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of commande vs commencé
Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commande": ad. Private to "commencé": é.
"commande" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "commencé" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- commande ← ccommande · cmomande · comamnde · comande · commadne · commandde · commaned · commannde
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "commande" and "commencé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "commande" 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 "commande" 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 #434,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commande" and "commencé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencé vs commencées". 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 #434,822 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.