voltear

Voltear is a Spanish verb with several related meanings centered on turning, flipping, or changing orientation. The core sense is physical rotation: to turn something over or to flip it to the other side, as in voltear la tortilla or voltear una página. It can also indicate changing direction or position, or reversing a situation.

Transitive uses are common. Voltear a concrete object: voltear una roca, voltear la tortilla, voltear la carta. Voltear cosas in order to examine them: voltear la página del libro. In everyday speech you may also hear voltear una moneda to flip a coin, or voltear la mesa in a figurative sense to describe a sudden, drastic reversal of a situation or mood, similar to “turn the tables” in English.

Intransitive and reflexive uses are frequent as well. Voltear can describe a person turning or rolling over: el perro volteó sobre su costado; voltear(se) hacia alguien or voltear la cabeza means to turn one’s head toward someone or away from something. Reflexive forms kuten voltear(se) are common in phrases like voltear(se) de lado, voltear(se) en la cama, or voltear(se) hacia un lugar.

Common expressions and related ideas include darle la vuelta a algo, voltear las tornas, o dar la vuelta a la tortilla, all of which convey reversal or significant change in a situation. Voltear es, en general, un verbo regular de la primera conjugación (-ar) en sus formas simples: volteo, volteas, voltea, volteamos, volteáis, voltean.