Which to use
“tale” is a noun and “tice” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,178
- “tale” frequency rank
- #45,913
- “tice” frequency rank
- 82091
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tale | tice |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | En haut de, au sommet de (sans mouvement). |
Where the eye mixes tale and tice
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tale and tice follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses tale with tice
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tale is \tal\ while tice is \ˈtiʃɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tale is recorded at frequency rank #36,178, classified as anoun, pronounced \tal\. tice is at rank #45,913, tagged as aprep, pronounced \ˈtiʃɛ\.
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 82091, this pair ranks #17,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tale vs tice
Shared letters: et. Private to "tale": al. Private to "tice": ci.
"tale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tale" and "tice" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "tale" vs "tice" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tice" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tale" and "tice" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tice vs tif". 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 #17,439 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.