commenceravscommencesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,751
“commencera” frequency rank
#9,800
“commences” frequency rank
23551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commencera commences
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du futur de commencer. Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de commencer.

Where the eye mixes commencera and commences

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. commencera runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVCV) against commences's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
commencera
9 ch
commences

Why the eye confuses commencera with commences

A purely visual mix-up. commencera (\kɔ.mɑ̃.sə.ʁa\) 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 23551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commencera is recorded at frequency rank #13,751, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃.sə.ʁa\. 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 23551, this pair ranks #351,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commencera vs commences

Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commencera": ar. Private to "commences": s.

"commencera" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCV  ·  "commences" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commencera ← ccommencera · cmomencera · comemncera · comencera · commecnera · commenccera · commencear · commencerra
  • commences ← ccommences · cmomences · comemnces · comences · commecnes · commencces · commencess · commencse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "commencera" for "commences" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.mɑ̃.sə.ʁa\ versus \kɔ.mɑ̃s\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "commencera" vs "commences" - which ranks higher?
"commences" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,800 in our French list, against #13,751 for "commencera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "commencera" 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 #351,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commencera" and "commences" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencées vs commencera". 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 #351,832 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