tournagesvstournuresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“tournages” and “tournures” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#26,902
“tournages” frequency rank
#37,097
“tournures” frequency rank
63999
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tournages tournures
Definition Pluriel de tournage. Pluriel de tournure.

Where the eye mixes tournages and tournures

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. tournages and tournures follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
tournages
9 ch
tournures

Why the eye confuses tournages with tournures

A purely visual mix-up. tournages (\tuʁ.naʒ\) and tournures (\tuʁ.nyʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tournages is recorded at frequency rank #26,902, classified as anoun, pronounced \tuʁ.naʒ\. tournures is at rank #37,097, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tuʁ.nyʁ\.

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 63999, this pair ranks #79,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tournages vs tournures

Shared letters: enorstu. Private to "tournages": ag. Private to "tournures": -.

"tournages" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCVC  ·  "tournures" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tournagesoturnages · torunages · tounrages · touranges · tournaegs · tournagess · tournagges · tournagse
  • tournuresoturnures · torunures · tounrures · tournnures · tournrues · tournuers · tournuress · tournurres

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tournages" and "tournures" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tuʁ.naʒ\ versus \tuʁ.nyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tournages" or "tournures"?
"tournages" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,902 in our French list, against #37,097 for "tournures". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tournages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tournures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tournages" and "tournures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tournages vs tournais". 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 #79,168 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