tournentvstourneraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,912
“tournent” frequency rank
#25,154
“tournera” frequency rank
33066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tournent tournera
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de tourner. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de tourner.

Where the eye mixes tournent and tournera

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. tournent (CVVCCVCC) and tournera (CVVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
tournent
8 ch
tournera

Why the eye confuses tournent with tournera

A purely visual mix-up. tournent (\tuʁn\) and tournera (\tuʁ.nə.ʁa\) 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 33066, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tournent is recorded at frequency rank #7,912, classified as averb, pronounced \tuʁn\. tournera is at rank #25,154, tagged as averb, pronounced \tuʁ.nə.ʁa\.

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 33066, this pair ranks #293,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tournent vs tournera

Shared letters: enortu. Private to "tournent": -. Private to "tournera": a.

"tournent" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC  ·  "tournera" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tournentoturnent · torunent · tounrent · tourennt · tournennt · tournentt · tournetn · tournnent
  • tourneraoturnera · torunera · tounrera · tourenra · tournear · tournerra · tournnera · tournrea

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tournent" and "tournera" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tuʁn\ versus \tuʁ.nə.ʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "tournent" or "tournera" show up more?
"tournent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,912 in our French list, against #25,154 for "tournera". 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 "tournent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tournera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #293,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tournent" and "tournera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tournera vs tournerait". 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 #293,070 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