# telling vs tending

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

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

### tending
*verb · IPA /ˈtɛndɪŋ/ · frequency rank #19,985*
present participle and gerund of tend

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-09-03.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/telling-vs-tending