Verbs for bending and turning

Question

I'm having some difficulty with the various verbs that exist for bending and turning and could really use some insight into them: 曲がる - Intransitive 曲げる - Transitive 回る - Intransitive 回す - Transitive

JDIC additionally lists 転じる, which I'm not familiar with.

I get the feeling that the 曲-based ones are more of a "bending" or "one-time turning" concept while the 回-based ones are more of a turning/rotating/spinning concept. More cyclical, you know?

Answer 1

According to みんなの日本語初級I Lessons 14 and 23 曲がる means to turn (around the corner):

すみません。 あの信号を右へ曲がってください。

Excuse me. Please turn to the right on that traffic light.

and 回す means to turn something (like a leaver or knob):

音が小さいですね。

…このつまみを右へ回すと、大きくなります。

The volume is low.

...If you turn this knob to the right it will go up.

On the other hand, according to the 電子辞書 曲げる (Transitive) means to bend something, like a steel bar or your finger.

Also 回る (Intransitive) refers to something that rotates on it's own, right now I can think of a plane's propeller or some other mechanical part, like:

飛行機のプロペラが回っています。

Plane's propeller is rotating.

I hope this was helpful to you.