Which to use
“tale” and “till” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,178
- “tale” frequency rank
- #36,617
- “till” frequency rank
- 72795
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tale | till |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Graine oléagineuse venant de l’Inde. |
Where the eye mixes tale and till
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tale (CVCV) and till (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses tale with till
A purely visual mix-up. tale (\tal\) and till (\til\) 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 72795, 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\. till is at rank #36,617, tagged as anoun, pronounced \til\.
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 72795, this pair ranks #42,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tale vs till
Shared letters: lt. Private to "tale": ae. Private to "till": i.
"tale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "till" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tale" and "till" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "tale" or "till"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tale" and "till" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "till" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tale" and "till" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs till". 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 #42,748 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.