Which to use
“commencée” is a verb and “commerce” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,332
- “commencée” frequency rank
- #977
- “commerce” frequency rank
- 16309
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commencée | commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de commencer. | Activité qui consiste à acheter et vendre des marchandises, des denrées, des valeurs, des services, etc., en vue de réaliser un profit. |
Where the eye mixes commencée and commerce
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: commencée vs commerce
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: commencée is \kɔ.mɑ̃.se\ while commerce is \kɔ.mɛʁs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16309, 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\. commerce is at rank #977, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mɛʁs\.
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 16309, this pair ranks #388,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of commencée vs commerce
Shared letters: cemo. Private to "commencée": né. Private to "commerce": r.
"commencée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV · "commerce" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- commerce ← ccommerce · cmomerce · comemrce · comerce · commecre · commercce · commerec · commerrce
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "commencée" for "commerce" ever safe?
Which is more common, "commencée" or "commerce"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "commencée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commerce" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #388,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commencée" and "commerce" 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 #388,410 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.