commevscommisTell them apart

Quick tell: comme is a adverb, commis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“comme” is an adverb and “commis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#51
“comme” frequency rank
#2,563
“commis” frequency rank
2614
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comme commis
Definition De même que ; ainsi que. Celui qui, dans une administration, une banque ou une maison de commerce, est chargé d’un emploi dont il doit rendre compte.

Where the eye mixes comme and commis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
comme
6 ch
commis

Why the eye confuses comme with commis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: comme is \kɔm\ while commis is \kɔ.mi\. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2614, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comme is recorded at frequency rank #51, classified as anadv, pronounced \kɔm\. commis is at rank #2,563, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mi\.

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 2614, this pair ranks #435,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of comme vs commis

Shared letters: cmo. Private to "comme": e. Private to "commis": is.

"comme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "commis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commeccomme · cmome · comem · ocmme
  • commisccommis · cmomis · comims · comis · commiss · commsi · ocmmis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "comme" and "commis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "comme" is an adverb and "commis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "comme" or "commis"?
"comme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #51 in our French list, against #2,563 for "commis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comme" and "commis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commis vs compos". 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 #435,802 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