commencervscommentésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#976
“commencer” frequency rank
#36,768
“commentés” frequency rank
37744
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commencer commentés
Definition Engager une action, entreprendre une tâche, donner à une chose un commencement d’existence. Participe passé masculin pluriel de commenter.

Where the eye mixes commencer and commentés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

9 ch
commencer
9 ch
commentés

Visual trap between commencer and commentés

A purely visual mix-up. commencer (\kɔ.mɑ̃.se\) and commentés (\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 37744, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commencer is recorded at frequency rank #976, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.se\. commentés is at rank #36,768, 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 37744, this pair ranks #260,238 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of commencer vs commentés

Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commencer": r. Private to "commentés": sté.

"commencer" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "commentés" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commencerccommencer · cmomencer · comemncer · comencer · commecner · commenccer · commencerr · commencre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "commencer" and "commentés" 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.
Which is more common, "commencer" or "commentés"?
"commencer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #976 in our French list, against #36,768 for "commentés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "commencer" and "commentés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "commencer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commentés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #260,238 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commencer" and "commentés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencées vs commentés". 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 #260,238 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