Which to use
“tournait” is a verb and “tournants” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,571
- “tournait” frequency rank
- #46,496
- “tournants” frequency rank
- 61067
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tournait | tournants |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de tourner. | Masculin pluriel de tournant. |
Where the eye mixes tournait and tournants
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. tournait runs 8 letters (CVVCCVVC) against tournants's 9 (CVVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tournait with tournants
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tournait is \tuʁ.nɛ\ while tournants is \tuʁ.nɑ̃\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tournait is recorded at frequency rank #14,571, classified as averb, pronounced \tuʁ.nɛ\. tournants is at rank #46,496, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tuʁ.nɑ̃\.
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 61067, this pair ranks #94,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tournait vs tournants
Shared letters: anortu. Private to "tournait": i. Private to "tournants": s.
"tournait" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC · "tournants" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tournait" and "tournants" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "tournait" or "tournants" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tournait" and "tournants" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tournait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tournants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #94,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tournait" and "tournants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tournais vs tournants". 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 #94,246 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.