Which to use
“retourna” is a verb and “retourne” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,463
- “retourna” frequency rank
- #2,449
- “retourne” frequency rank
- 18912
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | retourna | retourne |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de retourner. | Carte qu’on retourne à certains jeux, à la fin de la distribution, et qui détermine ordinairement l’atout. Dans certains jeux on dit virade. |
Where the eye mixes retourna and retourne
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. retourna and retourne follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: retourna vs retourne
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: retourna is \ʁə.tuʁ.na\ while retourne is \ʁə.tuʁn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “retourna” becomes e in “retourne”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18912, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
retourna is recorded at frequency rank #16,463, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁ.na\. retourne is at rank #2,449, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁn\.
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 18912, this pair ranks #375,971 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of retourna vs retourne
Shared letters: enortu. Private to "retourna": a. Private to "retourne": -.
"retourna" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV · "retourne" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "retourna" and "retourne" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "retourna" or "retourne" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "retourna" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retourne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #375,971 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "retourna" and "retourne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retourna vs retournait". 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 #375,971 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.