# tell vs tells

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### tell
*verb · IPA [tʰɔː] · frequency rank #277*
Mental senses related to determining, reckoning, or perceiving

### 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/tell-vs-tells