Which to use
“telling” and “tending” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,288
- “telling” frequency rank
- #19,985
- “tending” frequency rank
- 21273
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | telling | tending |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of tell | present participle and gerund of tend |
Where the eye mixes telling and tending
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. telling and tending follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses telling with tending
A purely visual mix-up. telling (/ˈtɛlɪŋ/) and tending (/ˈtɛndɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21273, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
telling is recorded at frequency rank #1,288, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈtɛlɪŋ/. tending is at rank #19,985, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈtɛndɪŋ/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 21273, this pair ranks #425,072 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of telling vs tending
Shared letters: egint. Private to "telling": l. Private to "tending": d.
"telling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "tending" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "telling" and "tending" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "telling" or "tending" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "telling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tending" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #425,072 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "telling" and "tending" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tendering vs tending". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #425,072 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.