Which to use
“commencé” and “commencée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #916
- “commencé” frequency rank
- #15,332
- “commencée” frequency rank
- 16248
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commencé | commencée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de commencer. | Participe passé féminin singulier de commencer. |
Same sound, different letters: commencé vs commencée
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. commencé runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against commencée's 9 (CVCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - commencé / commencée
This is the hard kind. commencé and commencée are pronounced identically (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “commencé” sits inside “commencée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commencé is recorded at frequency rank #916, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.se\. commencée is at rank #15,332, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.se\.
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 16248, this pair ranks #388,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of commencé vs commencée
Shared letters: cemnoé. Private to "commencé": -. Private to "commencée": -.
"commencé" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "commencée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "commencé" and "commencée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "commencé" or "commencée" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "commencé" / "commencée". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "commencé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commencée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #388,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commencé" and "commencée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencée vs commencées". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #388,710 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.