retournéesvsretournezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: retournées is a adjective, retournez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“retournées” is an adjective and “retournez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,283
“retournées” frequency rank
#21,755
“retournez” frequency rank
67038
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature retournées retournez
Definition Féminin pluriel de retourné. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de retourner.

Same sound, different letters: retournées vs retournez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. retournées runs 10 letters (CVCVVCCVVC) against retournez's 9 (CVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
retournées
9 ch
retournez

Ear matches; page differs - retournées and retournez

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: retournées and retournez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.tuʁ.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

retournées is recorded at frequency rank #45,283, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁ.ne\. retournez is at rank #21,755, tagged as averb, 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 67038, this pair ranks #65,175 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of retournées vs retournez

Shared letters: enortu. Private to "retournées": sé. Private to "retournez": z.

"retournées" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVVC  ·  "retournez" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • retournez ← ertournez · reoturnez · retorunez · retounrez · retourenz · retournezz · retournnez · retournze

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "retournées" and "retournez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "retournées" is an adjective and "retournez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "retournées" or "retournez"?
"retournez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,755 in our French list, against #45,283 for "retournées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "retournées" / "retournez". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "retournées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retournez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,175 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "retournées" and "retournez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retournées 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 #65,175 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