Which to use
“Tales” is a noun and “tapes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,163
- “Tales” frequency rank
- #41,496
- “tapes” frequency rank
- 63659
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Tales | tapes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Tal | 2. Person Singular Präsens Konjunktiv des Verbs tapar |
Letter map: Tales vs tapes
Shared letters muted; letters that set Tales and tapes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Tales and tapes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - Tales and tapes
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Tales is anoun and tapesaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - l in “Tales” becomes p in “tapes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63659, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Tales is recorded at frequency rank #22,163, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtaːləs]. tapes is at rank #41,496, tagged as averb, pronounced […].
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 63659, this pair ranks #668,927 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Tales vs tapes
Shared letters: aest. Private to "Tales": l. Private to "tapes": p.
"Tales" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "tapes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Tales" for "tapes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Tales" vs "tapes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Tales" and "tapes".
- Full dictionary entry for "Tales" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tapes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #668,927 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Tales" and "tapes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tapes". 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 #668,927 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.