commencévscommentésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#916
“commencé” frequency rank
#36,768
“commentés” frequency rank
37684
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commencé commentés
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de commencer. Participe passé masculin pluriel de commenter.

Where the eye mixes commencé and commentés

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

8 ch
commencé
9 ch
commentés

Why the eye confuses commencé with commentés

A purely visual mix-up. commencé (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\) and commentés (\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 37684, 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\. commentés is at rank #36,768, 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 37684, this pair ranks #260,707 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of commencé vs commentés

Shared letters: cemnoé. Private to "commencé": -. Private to "commentés": st.

"commencé" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "commentés" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "commencé" and "commentés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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 "commentés" show up more?
"commencé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #916 in our French list, against #36,768 for "commentés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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 "commentés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #260,707 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commencé" and "commentés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencées vs commentés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #260,707 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