Which to use
“commencées” and “commences” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,799
- “commencées” frequency rank
- #9,800
- “commences” frequency rank
- 57599
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commencées | commences |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin pluriel de commencer. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de commencer. |
Where the eye mixes commencées and commences
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses commencées with commences
A purely visual mix-up. commencées (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\) and commences (\kɔ.mɑ̃s\) 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 57599, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commencées is recorded at frequency rank #47,799, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.se\. commences is at rank #9,800, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃s\.
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 57599, this pair ranks #114,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of commencées vs commences
Shared letters: cemnos. Private to "commencées": é. Private to "commences": -.
"commencées" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC · "commences" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- commences ← ccommences · cmomences · comemnces · comences · commecnes · commencces · commencess · commencse
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "commencées" and "commences" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "commencées" or "commences" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "commencées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commences" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #114,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commencées" and "commences" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencées vs compensées". 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 #114,056 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.