Which to use
“commencent” and “commences” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,128
- “commencent” frequency rank
- #9,800
- “commences” frequency rank
- 12928
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commencent | commences |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de commencer. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de commencer. |
Same sound, different letters: commencent vs commences
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.
Homophone desk: commencent vs commences
This is the hard kind. commencent and commences are pronounced identically (\kɔ.mɑ̃s\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commencent is recorded at frequency rank #3,128, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃s\. 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 12928, this pair ranks #403,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of commencent vs commences
Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commencent": t. Private to "commences": s.
"commencent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC · "commences" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- commencent ← ccommencent · cmomencent · comemncent · comencent · commecnent · commenccent · commencennt · commencentt
- commences ← ccommences · cmomences · comemnces · comences · commecnes · commencces · commencess · commencse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "commencent" and "commences" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "commencent" or "commences"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "commencent" / "commences". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "commencent" 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 #403,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commencent" and "commences" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencées vs commences". 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 #403,157 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.