Which to use
“tourner” is a verb and “tournure” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,758
- “tourner” frequency rank
- #12,685
- “tournure” frequency rank
- 14443
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tourner | tournure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mouvoir en rond, par un mouvement circulaire ou en ligne courbe, autour d’un axe de rotation. | Manière de tourner. de présenter les choses. |
Where the eye mixes tourner and tournure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. tourner runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against tournure's 8 (CVVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tourner with tournure
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tourner is \tuʁ.ne\ while tournure is \tuʁ.nyʁ\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14443, 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\. tournure is at rank #12,685, 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 14443, this pair ranks #396,629 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tourner vs tournure
Shared letters: enortu. Private to "tourner": -. Private to "tournure": -.
"tourner" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "tournure" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tourner" and "tournure" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "tourner" or "tournure"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tourner" and "tournure" 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 "tournure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,629 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tourner" and "tournure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tourneur vs tournure". 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 #396,629 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.