tournévstourneurWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,300
“tourné” frequency rank
#41,570
“tourneur” frequency rank
44870
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tourné tourneur
Definition Aigri. Qui tourne, tournant.

Where the eye mixes tourné and tourneur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. tourné runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against tourneur's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
tourné
8 ch
tourneur

Why the eye confuses tourné with tourneur

A purely visual mix-up. tourné (\tuʁ.ne\) and tourneur (\tuʁ.nœʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44870, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tourné is recorded at frequency rank #3,300, classified as anadj, pronounced \tuʁ.ne\. tourneur is at rank #41,570, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tuʁ.nœʁ\.

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 44870, this pair ranks #207,161 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tourné vs tourneur

Shared letters: nortu. Private to "tourné": é. Private to "tourneur": e.

"tourné" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "tourneur" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tourneuroturneur · toruneur · tounreur · tourenur · tourneru · tourneurr · tournneur · tourrneur

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tourné" and "tourneur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\tuʁ.ne\ versus \tuʁ.nœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tourné" vs "tourneur" - which ranks higher?
"tourné" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,300 in our French list, against #41,570 for "tourneur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tourné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tourneur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,161 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tourné" and "tourneur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "torpeur vs tourneur". 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 #207,161 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