commandesvscommunesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: commandes is a noun, communes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“commandes” is a noun and “communes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,523
“commandes” frequency rank
#1,556
“communes” frequency rank
5079
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commandes communes
Definition Pluriel de commande. Féminin pluriel de commun.

Where the eye mixes commandes and communes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
commandes
8 ch
communes

Why the eye confuses commandes with communes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: commandes is \kɔ.mɑ̃d\ while communes is \kɔ.myn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commandes is recorded at frequency rank #3,523, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃d\. 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 5079, this pair ranks #429,957 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commandes vs communes

Shared letters: cemnos. Private to "commandes": ad. Private to "communes": u.

"commandes" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "communes" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commandesccommandes · cmomandes · comamndes · comandes · commadnes · commanddes · commandess · commandse
  • communesccommunes · cmomunes · commnues · commuens · communess · communnes · communse · comumnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "commandes" and "communes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "commandes" is a noun and "communes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "commandes" 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 #3,523 for "commandes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "commandes" 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 #429,957 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commandes" and "communes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commandes vs commandites". 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 #429,957 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