Which to use
“commences” is a verb and “communes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,800
- “commences” frequency rank
- #1,556
- “communes” frequency rank
- 11356
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commences | communes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de commencer. | Féminin pluriel de commun. |
Where the eye mixes commences and communes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. commences runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVC) against communes's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: commences vs communes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: commences is \kɔ.mɑ̃s\ while communes is \kɔ.myn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11356, 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\. communes is at rank #1,556, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.myn\.
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 11356, this pair ranks #409,468 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of commences vs communes
Shared letters: cemnos. Private to "commences": -. Private to "communes": u.
"commences" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC · "communes" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "commences" and "communes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "commences" or "communes"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "commences" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "communes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #409,468 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commences" and "communes" 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 #409,468 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.