tablevstaleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“table” and “tale” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,013
“table” frequency rank
#36,178
“tale” frequency rank
37191
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature table tale
Definition Surface plane de bois, de pierre, de marbre, etc., posée sur un ou plusieurs pieds et qui sert à divers usages. Groupe d’arbres, de plantes, d'arbrisseaux fruitiers ou de végétaux d’une même espèce qui croissent de manière très dense dans un endroit donné ; cet endroit.

Where the eye mixes table and tale

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
table
4 ch
tale

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. table (\tabl\) and tale (\tal\) 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 37191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

table is recorded at frequency rank #1,013, classified as anoun, pronounced \tabl\. tale is at rank #36,178, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tal\.

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 37191, this pair ranks #264,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of table vs tale

Shared letters: aelt. Private to "table": b. Private to "tale": -.

"table" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tableatble · tabble · tabel · tablle · talbe · tbale · ttable
  • taleatle · tael · talle · tlae · ttale

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "table" and "tale" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tabl\ versus \tal\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "table" or "tale"?
"table" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,013 in our French list, against #36,178 for "tale". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list