Which to use
“retournant” and “retournent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,401
- “retournant” frequency rank
- #14,552
- “retournent” frequency rank
- 36953
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | retournant | retournent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe présent de retourner. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de retourner. |
Where the eye mixes retournant and retournent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. retournant and retournent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: retournant vs retournent
A purely visual mix-up. retournant (\ʁə.tuʁ.nɑ̃\) and retournent (\ʁə.tuʁn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “retournant” becomes e in “retournent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36953, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
retournant is recorded at frequency rank #22,401, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁ.nɑ̃\. retournent is at rank #14,552, tagged as averb, 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 36953, this pair ranks #265,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of retournant vs retournent
Shared letters: enortu. Private to "retournant": a. Private to "retournent": -.
"retournant" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVCC · "retournent" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- retournant ← ertournant · reoturnant · retorunant · retounrant · retourannt · retournannt · retournantt · retournatn
- retournent ← ertournent · reoturnent · retorunent · retounrent · retourennt · retournennt · retournentt · retournetn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "retournant" for "retournent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "retournant" or "retournent" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "retournant" and "retournent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "retournant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retournent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #265,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "retournant" and "retournent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retournant vs retournons". 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 #265,935 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.