1) 它可以后面接上系动词 to be，后面的表语是形容词或名词（如果是已经发生的事，名词前的 to be 可省略）。

• The business turned out a success.生意竟然做成功了。
• The dirty boy turned out (to be) a prince in disguise.那个脏兮兮的男孩原来竟然是王子假扮的。
• The whole thing turned out to be a misunderstanding.原来全是一场误会。
• Our fears turned out to be groundless.我们的担心，原来是过虑。
• The house turned out to be more expensive than we had thought.那栋房子原来比我们想的要昂贵。

turn out to be 也可以有“成为”的意思，但仍然保留一点“原先没有想到”、“出意料之外”的语气。

• Everyone is hoping that these hi-tech companies will turn out to be the Microsofts of the future.每个人都希望这些高科技公司会成为未来的微软。

2) 它后面也可以接上其他动词（延续动词，如果是瞬时动词要用 have + pp）。

• He turned out to have a sister at the same school.原来他有个妹妹也在同一家学校上学。
• The resort turned out to have closed a month before.那个旅游点原来一个月以前就已经关闭了。
• The purchase turned out to have caused immense financial difficulties.那次收购原来造成了巨大的资金困难。

如果后面接上的不定式动词是个瞬时动词而又不用 to have + pp 形式而用 to inf. 形式，则这个 turn out 就可能不是“原来”或“竟然”的意思，而是 turn 加 out 的原意，即“出来”、“出面”的行动。

• Thousands of people turned out to cast their ballots.成千上万的人出来投票。

3) 它后面可以接上副词，表示结果。

• Everything turned out well.一切顺利。
• The photos turned out quite well.照片洗出来相当不错。
• The transaction turned out badly for them.那次交易，他们吃了亏。

4) 也可以采用 It turns out (that)…来表示“原来竟然”（是延续状态，表示真相摆在那里；也可以是瞬时变化，表示真相出现）。

• Now it turns out he was a journalist.现在才知道他原来是个记者。
• It turns out they were wrong.原来他们是错了。
• It turns out that we don't use computers to enhance our math skills—we use them to expand our people skills.我们使用电脑，原来并不是为了增长数学本领，而是为了增长待人接物的本领。

这个 it turns out 也可以用作前后有逗号的插入语。

• The man he trusts, it turns out, is a swindler.他所相信的人原来竟然是个骗子。
• I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.我当时没有看到，但是，原来被苹果公司解雇竟然是我所遇到的最走运的事情。