televstesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“tele” and “tes” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,203
“tele” frequency rank
#28,970
“tes” frequency rank
33173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tele tes
Definition Apócope de televisión. Forma del plural de te.

Where the eye mixes tele and tes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
tele
3 ch
tes

Look-alike desk: tele vs tes

A purely visual mix-up. tele ([ˈt̪ele]) and tes ([ˈt̪es]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tele is recorded at frequency rank #4,203, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪ele]. tes is at rank #28,970, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪es].

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 33173, this pair ranks #198,212 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tele vs tes

Shared letters: et. Private to "tele": l. Private to "tes": s.

"tele" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • teleetle · teel · telle · tlee · ttele

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tele" and "tes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈt̪ele] versus [ˈt̪es]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tele" or "tes" show up more?
"tele" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,203 in our Spanish list, against #28,970 for "tes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tele" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #198,212 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tele" and "tes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tes vs toys". 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 #198,212 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list