commevscommuneTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#51
“comme” frequency rank
#917
“commune” frequency rank
968
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comme commune
Definition De même que ; ainsi que. Division du territoire.

Where the eye mixes comme and commune

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
comme
7 ch
commune

Look-alike desk: comme vs commune

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: comme is \kɔm\ while commune is \kɔ.myn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comme is recorded at frequency rank #51, classified as anadv, pronounced \kɔm\. commune is at rank #917, tagged as anoun, 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 968, this pair ranks #438,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of comme vs commune

Shared letters: cemo. Private to "comme": -. Private to "commune": nu.

"comme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "commune" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commeccomme · cmome · comem · ocmme
  • communeccommune · cmomune · commnue · commuen · communne · comumne · comune · ocmmune

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "comme" and "commune" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "comme" is an adverb and "commune" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "comme" vs "commune" - which ranks higher?
"comme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #51 in our French list, against #917 for "commune". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "comme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commune" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #438,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comme" and "commune" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comme vs conde". 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 #438,838 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