# teasing vs telling

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### teasing
*verb · IPA /ˈtiːz.ɪŋ/ · frequency rank #14,035*
present participle and gerund of tease

### 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/teasing-vs-telling