commençavscommenteTell them apart

Which to use

“commença” and “commente” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,945
“commença” frequency rank
#9,451
“commente” frequency rank
17396
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commença commente
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de commencer. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de commenter.

Where the eye mixes commença and commente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
commença
8 ch
commente

Why the eye confuses commença with commente

A purely visual mix-up. commença (\kɔ.mɑ̃.sa\) and commente (\kɔ.mɑ̃t\) 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 17396, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commença is recorded at frequency rank #7,945, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.sa\. commente is at rank #9,451, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃t\.

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 17396, this pair ranks #383,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commença vs commente

Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commença": . Private to "commente": t.

"commença" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "commente" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commenteccommente · cmomente · comemnte · comente · commenet · commennte · commentte · commetne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "commença" and "commente" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.mɑ̃.sa\ versus \kɔ.mɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "commença" vs "commente" - which ranks higher?
"commença" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,945 in our French list, against #9,451 for "commente". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "commença" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #383,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commença" and "commente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commente vs commère". 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 #383,373 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