Which to use
“commencée” and “commencées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,332
- “commencée” frequency rank
- #47,799
- “commencées” frequency rank
- 63131
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commencée | commencées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de commencer. | Participe passé féminin pluriel de commencer. |
Same sound, different letters: commencée vs commencées
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. commencée runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVV) against commencées's 10 (CVCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - commencée and commencées
This is the hard kind. commencée and commencées 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) - “commencée” sits inside “commencées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63131, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commencée is recorded at frequency rank #15,332, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.se\. commencées is at rank #47,799, 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 63131, this pair ranks #83,600 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of commencée vs commencées
Shared letters: cemnoé. Private to "commencée": -. Private to "commencées": s.
"commencée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV · "commencées" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "commencée" and "commencées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "commencée" or "commencées" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "commencée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commencées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #83,600 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commencée" and "commencées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencées vs compensées". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #83,600 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.