Which to use
“commences” and “commercer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,800
- “commences” frequency rank
- #38,210
- “commercer” frequency rank
- 48010
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commences | commercer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de commencer. | Faire du commerce. |
Where the eye mixes commences and commercer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. commences and commercer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between commences and commercer
A purely visual mix-up. commences (\kɔ.mɑ̃s\) and commercer (\kɔ.mɛʁ.se\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48010, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commences is recorded at frequency rank #9,800, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɑ̃s\. commercer is at rank #38,210, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɛʁ.se\.
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 48010, this pair ranks #182,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of commences vs commercer
Shared letters: cemo. Private to "commences": ns. Private to "commercer": r.
"commences" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC · "commercer" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "commences" for "commercer" ever safe?
Frequency check: "commences" vs "commercer" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "commences" and "commercer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "commences" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commercer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #182,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commences" and "commercer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commercer vs commère". 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 #182,377 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.