# talking vs telling

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### talking
*noun · IPA /ˈtɔːkɪŋ/ · frequency rank #520*
The action of the verb talk.

### telling
*verb · IPA /ˈtɛlɪŋ/ · frequency rank #1,288*
present participle and gerund of tell

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/talking-vs-telling