commencévscommenteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#916
“commencé” frequency rank
#9,451
“commente” frequency rank
10367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commencé commente
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de commencer. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de commenter.

Where the eye mixes commencé and commente

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

8 ch
commencé
8 ch
commente

Look-alike desk: commencé vs commente

A purely visual mix-up. commencé (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\) 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 10367, 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\. 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 10367, this pair ranks #413,244 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commencé vs commente

Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commencé": é. Private to "commente": t.

"commencé" · 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

Is swapping "commencé" for "commente" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\ versus \kɔ.mɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "commencé" vs "commente" - which ranks higher?
"commencé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #916 in our French list, against #9,451 for "commente". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "commencé" 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 #413,244 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commencé" 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 #413,244 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