retournevsretournésConfusable pair

Quick tell: retourne is a noun, retournés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“retourne” is a noun and “retournés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,449
“retourne” frequency rank
#20,550
“retournés” frequency rank
22999
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature retourne retournés
Definition 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. Masculin pluriel de retourné.

Where the eye mixes retourne and retournés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. retourne runs 8 letters (CVCVVCCV) against retournés's 9 (CVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
retourne
9 ch
retournés

Visual trap between retourne and retournés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: retourne is \ʁə.tuʁn\ while retournés is \ʁə.tuʁ.ne\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

retourne is recorded at frequency rank #2,449, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁn\. retournés is at rank #20,550, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁ.ne\.

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 22999, this pair ranks #354,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of retourne vs retournés

Shared letters: enortu. Private to "retourne": -. Private to "retournés": sé.

"retourne" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "retournés" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • retourne ← ertourne · reoturne · retorune · retounre · retouren · retournne · retourrne · rettourne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "retourne" and "retournés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "retourne" is a noun and "retournés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "retourne" or "retournés"?
"retourne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,449 in our French list, against #20,550 for "retournés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "retourne" and "retournés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "retourne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retournés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #354,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "retourne" and "retournés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retournées vs retournés". 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 #354,928 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list