Which to use
“commune” is a noun and “communes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #917
- “commune” frequency rank
- #1,556
- “communes” frequency rank
- 2473
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commune | communes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Division du territoire. | Féminin pluriel de commun. |
Same sound, different letters: commune vs communes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. commune runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against communes's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: commune vs communes
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: commune and communes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ.myn\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “commune” sits inside “communes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2473, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commune is recorded at frequency rank #917, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.myn\. 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 2473, this pair ranks #436,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of commune vs communes
Shared letters: cemnou. Private to "commune": -. Private to "communes": s.
"commune" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "communes" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "commune" for "communes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "commune" vs "communes" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
"commune" and "communes" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "commune" 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 #436,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commune" and "communes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "communes vs communier". 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 #436,077 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.