commencévscommentéeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#916
“commencé” frequency rank
#26,302
“commentée” frequency rank
27218
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commencé commentée
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de commencer. Participe passé féminin singulier de commenter.

Where the eye mixes commencé and commentée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. commencé runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against commentée's 9 (CVCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
commencé
9 ch
commentée

Look-alike desk: commencé vs commentée

A purely visual mix-up. commencé (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\) and commentée (\kɔ.mɑ̃.te\) 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 27218, 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\. commentée is at rank #26,302, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.te\.

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 27218, this pair ranks #330,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of commencé vs commentée

Shared letters: cemnoé. Private to "commencé": -. Private to "commentée": t.

"commencé" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "commentée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "commencé" and "commentée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\ versus \kɔ.mɑ̃.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "commencé" or "commentée" show up more?
"commencé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #916 in our French list, against #26,302 for "commentée". 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 "commentée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #330,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commencé" and "commentée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commentée vs contentée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #330,367 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