Which to use
“retour” and “retours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #403
- “retour” frequency rank
- #6,651
- “retours” frequency rank
- 7054
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | retour | retours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tour en sens contraire. | Pluriel de retour. |
Same sound, different letters: retour vs retours
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - retour / retours
This is the hard kind. retour and retours are pronounced identically (\ʁə.tuʁ\) 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) - “retour” sits inside “retours”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7054, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
retour is recorded at frequency rank #403, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁ\. retours is at rank #6,651, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁ\.
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 7054, this pair ranks #424,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of retour vs retours
Shared letters: eortu. Private to "retour": -. Private to "retours": s.
"retour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "retours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "retour" and "retours" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "retour" vs "retours" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "retour" / "retours". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "retour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #424,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "retour" and "retours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "relous vs retours". 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 #424,406 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.