Which to use
“commençais” and “commençait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,907
- “commençais” frequency rank
- #8,520
- “commençait” frequency rank
- 26427
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commençais | commençait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de commencer. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de commencer. |
Same sound, different letters: commençais vs commençait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. commençais and commençait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Same sound, different spelling - commençais / commençait
This is the hard kind. commençais and commençait are pronounced identically (\kɔ.mɑ̃.sɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - s in “commençais” becomes t in “commençait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commençais is recorded at frequency rank #17,907, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.sɛ\. commençait is at rank #8,520, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.sɛ\.
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 26427, this pair ranks #335,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of commençais vs commençait
Shared letters: aceimnoç. Private to "commençais": s. Private to "commençait": t.
"commençais" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC · "commençait" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "commençais" for "commençait" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "commençais" or "commençait" show up more?
After this comparison
"commençais" and "commençait" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "commençais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commençait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #335,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commençais" and "commençait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commençais vs commencées". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #335,070 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.