retournéesvsretournonsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#45,283
“retournées” frequency rank
#39,507
“retournons” frequency rank
84790
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature retournées retournons
Definition Féminin pluriel de retourné. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de retourner.

Where the eye mixes retournées and retournons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. retournées (CVCVVCCVVC) and retournons (CVCVVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
retournées
10 ch
retournons

Why the eye confuses retournées with retournons

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: retournées is \ʁə.tuʁ.ne\ while retournons is \ʁə.tuʁ.nɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84790, 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\. retournons is at rank #39,507, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁ.nɔ̃\.

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 84790, this pair ranks #12,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of retournées vs retournons

Shared letters: enorstu. Private to "retournées": é. Private to "retournons": -.

"retournées" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVVC  ·  "retournons" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • retournons ← ertournons · reoturnons · retorunons · retounrons · retournnons · retournnos · retournonns · retournonss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "retournées" and "retournons" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "retournées" is an adjective and "retournons" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "retournées" or "retournons"?
"retournons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,507 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "retournées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retournons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "retournées" and "retournons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retournées vs retournera". 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 #12,368 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