Which to use
“tears” is a noun and “teils” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,803
- “tears” frequency rank
- #1,945
- “teils” frequency rank
- 34748
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tears | teils |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plural des Substantivs tear | nicht alles zusammen betreffend, sondern nur einen Teil |
Letter map: tears vs teils
Shared letters muted; letters that set tears and teils apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for tears / teils
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tears is anoun and teilsanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tears is recorded at frequency rank #32,803, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. teils is at rank #1,945, tagged as anadv, pronounced [taɪ̯ls].
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 34748, this pair ranks #1,656,228 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tears vs teils
Shared letters: est. Private to "tears": ar. Private to "teils": il.
"tears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "teils" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tears" for "teils" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tears" or "teils"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tears" and "teils".
- Full dictionary entry for "tears" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "teils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,656,228 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tears" and "teils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tears". 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 #1,656,228 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.