commencéevscommenterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,332
“commencée” frequency rank
#7,167
“commenter” frequency rank
22499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commencée commenter
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de commencer. Interpréter par un commentaire, par des commentaires.

Where the eye mixes commencée and commenter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
commencée
9 ch
commenter

Visual trap between commencée and commenter

A purely visual mix-up. commencée (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\) and commenter (\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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22499, 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\. commenter is at rank #7,167, 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 22499, this pair ranks #357,658 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commencée vs commenter

Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commencée": é. Private to "commenter": rt.

"commencée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "commenter" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commenterccommenter · cmomenter · comemnter · comenter · commenetr · commennter · commenterr · commentre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "commencée" and "commenter" 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.
Frequency check: "commencée" vs "commenter" - which ranks higher?
"commenter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,167 in our French list, against #15,332 for "commencée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "commencée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commenter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,658 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commencée" and "commenter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencée vs commencées". 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 #357,658 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