commencezvscommentésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,360
“commencez” frequency rank
#36,768
“commentés” frequency rank
45128
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commencez commentés
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de commencer. Participe passé masculin pluriel de commenter.

Where the eye mixes commencez and commentés

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

9 ch
commencez
9 ch
commentés

Why the eye confuses commencez with commentés

A purely visual mix-up. commencez (\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 45128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commencez is recorded at frequency rank #8,360, 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 45128, this pair ranks #205,170 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of commencez vs commentés

Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commencez": z. Private to "commentés": sté.

"commencez" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "commentés" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commencezccommencez · cmomencez · comemncez · comencez · commecnez · commenccez · commencezz · commencze

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "commencez" and "commentés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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, "commencez" or "commentés"?
"commencez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,360 in our French list, against #36,768 for "commentés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "commencez" 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 #205,170 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commencez" 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 #205,170 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