commercevscommercesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#977
“commerce” frequency rank
#5,435
“commerces” frequency rank
6412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commerce commerces
Definition Activité qui consiste à acheter et vendre des marchandises, des denrées, des valeurs, des services, etc., en vue de réaliser un profit. Pluriel de commerce.

Same sound, different letters: commerce vs commerces

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

8 ch
commerce
9 ch
commerces

Homophone desk: commerce vs commerces

This is the hard kind. commerce and commerces are pronounced identically (\kɔ.mɛʁs\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “commerce” sits inside “commerces”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commerce is recorded at frequency rank #977, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mɛʁs\. commerces is at rank #5,435, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mɛʁs\.

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 6412, this pair ranks #426,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commerce vs commerces

Shared letters: cemor. Private to "commerce": -. Private to "commerces": s.

"commerce" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "commerces" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commerceccommerce · cmomerce · comemrce · comerce · commecre · commercce · commerec · commerrce
  • commercesccommerces · cmomerces · comemrces · comerces · commecres · commercces · commercess · commercse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "commerce" and "commerces" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ.mɛʁs\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "commerce" or "commerces" show up more?
"commerce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #977 in our French list, against #5,435 for "commerces". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "commerce" / "commerces". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "commerce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commerces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #426,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commerce" and "commerces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commencées vs commerces". 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 #426,297 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