tourner
French, verb/tuʁ.ne/
tourner is spelled T-O-U-R-N-E-R (7 letters) and appears 48 times per million words in written French, the 1,739th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Tourner is a French verb meaning “to turn; to change (direction); to rotate; to spin” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Mouvoir en rond, par un mouvement circulaire ou en ligne courbe, autour d’un axe de rotation”.
What does tourner mean in English?
verb
- 1
to turn; to change (direction); to rotate; to spin
Tourner à gauche.
- 2
to go around; to circle (something)
Le chien tourne autour de la table.
- 3
to revolve around; to orbit (a celestial body)
La Terre tourne autour du Soleil.
- 4
to turn into; to become (something)
La conversation a tourné au vinaigre.
- 5
to revolve around; to concern (a topic)
La discussion tourne autour de ce problème.
- 6
to stir (a liquid, sauce, or mixture, especially with a circular movement)
Near-synonym: remuer
- 7
to go bad; to spoil (food)
- 8
to tour; to go on tour
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Mouvoir en rond, par un mouvement circulaire ou en ligne courbe, autour d’un axe de rotation. 2. Décrire un mouvement circulaire autour de quelque chose ; contourner. 3. Bouger ; diriger. 4. Inverser, mouvoir en sens contraire. → voir retourner.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of tourner
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- tournant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- tourné participle past
- tourne first-person indicative present
- tournes indicative present second-person
- tournons first-person indicative plural
- tournez indicative plural present
- tournent indicative plural present
- tournais first-person imperfect indicative
- tournait imperfect indicative singular
- tournions first-person imperfect indicative
- tourniez imperfect indicative plural
- tournaient imperfect indicative plural
- tournai first-person historic indicative
- tournas historic indicative past
- tourna historic indicative past
- tournâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce tourner?
- /tuʁ.ne/
- \tuʁ.ne\
- [tuʁ.ne]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to tourner
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is tourner in French?
tourner appears 48 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).