tells
[…]
The verdict
“tells” is uncommon German (frequency #77,409 among 35,386 “T” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,409
- frequency rank, German
- 35,386
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tell
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tells |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | […] |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #77,409 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tells” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
tells is uncommon German at frequency #77,409 among 35,386 “T” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed […]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tell".
No misspelling variants are generated for tells in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular German conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is tells, spelled T-E-L-L-S.
Definition
- 13. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tell
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
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Using “tells”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is T-E-L-L-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as […] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Other uncommon German words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.