# tears vs tells

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### tears
*noun · IPA /tɪɹz/ · frequency rank #3,198*
plural of tear (“liquid from the eyes”)

### tells
*verb · IPA /tɛlz/ · frequency rank #1,740*
third-person singular simple present indicative of tell

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