Which to use
“commons” is a verb and “communs” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,806
- “commons” frequency rank
- #5,016
- “communs” frequency rank
- 28822
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commons | communs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe commer. | Masculin pluriel de commun. |
Where the eye mixes commons and communs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between commons and communs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: commons is \kɔ.mɔ̃\ while communs is \kɔ.mœ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - o in “commons” becomes u in “communs”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28822, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commons is recorded at frequency rank #23,806, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɔ̃\. communs is at rank #5,016, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.mœ̃\.
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 28822, this pair ranks #320,482 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of commons vs communs
Shared letters: cmnos. Private to "commons": -. Private to "communs": u.
"commons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "communs" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "commons" for "communs" ever safe?
Which is more common, "commons" or "communs"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "commons" and "communs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "commons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "communs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #320,482 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commons" and "communs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commons vs compos". 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 #320,482 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.