Which to use
“commencent” and “commençons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,128
- “commencent” frequency rank
- #13,546
- “commençons” frequency rank
- 16674
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commencent | commençons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de commencer. | Première personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de commencer. |
Where the eye mixes commencent and commençons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses commencent with commençons
A purely visual mix-up. commencent (\kɔ.mɑ̃s\) and commençons (\kɔ.mɑ̃.sɔ̃\) 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 16674, 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\. commençons is at rank #13,546, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.sɔ̃\.
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 16674, this pair ranks #386,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of commencent vs commençons
Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commencent": t. Private to "commençons": sç.
"commencent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC · "commençons" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- commencent ← ccommencent · cmomencent · comemncent · comencent · commecnent · commenccent · commencennt · commencentt
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "commencent" and "commençons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "commencent" or "commençons" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "commencent" and "commençons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "commencent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commençons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #386,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commencent" and "commençons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencées vs commençons". 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 #386,769 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.