communvscommunsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,022
“commun” frequency rank
#5,016
“communs” frequency rank
6038
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commun communs
Definition Qui sert, qui peut servir à tout le monde ou seulement à plusieurs personnes. Masculin pluriel de commun.

Same sound, different letters: commun vs communs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
commun
7 ch
communs

Homophone desk: commun vs communs

This is the hard kind. commun and communs are pronounced identically (\kɔ.mœ̃\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “commun” sits inside “communs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commun is recorded at frequency rank #1,022, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.mœ̃\. 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 6038, this pair ranks #427,355 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commun vs communs

Shared letters: cmnou. Private to "commun": -. Private to "communs": s.

"commun" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "communs" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • communccommun · cmomun · commnu · communn · comumn · comun · ocmmun
  • communsccommuns · cmomuns · commnus · communns · communss · commusn · comumns · comuns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "commun" for "communs" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ.mœ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "commun" or "communs"?
"commun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,022 in our French list, against #5,016 for "communs". 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 "commun" / "communs". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "commun" 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 #427,355 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commun" and "communs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commu vs communs". 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 #427,355 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