Which to use
“tourner” is a verb and “tournis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,758
- “tourner” frequency rank
- #44,230
- “tournis” frequency rank
- 45988
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tourner | tournis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mouvoir en rond, par un mouvement circulaire ou en ligne courbe, autour d’un axe de rotation. | Maladie des moutons et des bœufs dans laquelle, pris d’une sorte de vertige, ils tournent convulsivement sur eux-mêmes. |
Where the eye mixes tourner and tournis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. tourner and tournis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses tourner with tournis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tourner is \tuʁ.ne\ while tournis is \tuʁ.ni\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45988, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tourner is recorded at frequency rank #1,758, classified as averb, pronounced \tuʁ.ne\. tournis is at rank #44,230, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tuʁ.ni\.
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 45988, this pair ranks #198,517 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tourner vs tournis
Shared letters: nortu. Private to "tourner": e. Private to "tournis": is.
"tourner" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "tournis" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tourner" for "tournis" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tourner" or "tournis"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "tourner" and "tournis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tourner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tournis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #198,517 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tourner" and "tournis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tournais vs tournis". 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 #198,517 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.