Which to use
“commencé” and “commences” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #916
- “commencé” frequency rank
- #9,800
- “commences” frequency rank
- 10716
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commencé | commences |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de commencer. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de commencer. |
Where the eye mixes commencé and commences
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. commencé runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against commences's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between commencé and commences
A purely visual mix-up. commencé (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\) and commences (\kɔ.mɑ̃s\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10716, 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\. commences is at rank #9,800, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃s\.
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 10716, this pair ranks #411,905 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of commencé vs commences
Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commencé": é. Private to "commences": s.
"commencé" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "commences" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- commences ← ccommences · cmomences · comemnces · comences · commecnes · commencces · commencess · commencse
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "commencé" and "commences" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "commencé" vs "commences" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "commencé" and "commences" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "commencé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commences" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #411,905 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commencé" and "commences" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencées vs commences". 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 #411,905 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.