Tail and Tale

Commonly Confused Words

Reader imagination
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By
Richard Nordquist
Richard Nordquist
English and Rhetoric Professor
  • Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
  • M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
  • B.A., English, State University of New York
Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks.
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Updated on February 12, 2019

The words tail and tale are homophones: they sound the same but have different meanings. Both a noun and a verb, tail has several meanings, including the rear part of an animal or vehicle. The noun tale refers to a report or story.

Examples:

  • "A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way."
    (Mark Twain)
  • "I used small words and short sentences as if I were telling a fairy tale to a child."
    (Maya Angelou, The Heart of a Woman. Random House, 1981)
  • "'Memphis' is a sad story of long-distance love, with an unexpected twist at the tail end of the tale."
    (Fred Rothwell, Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy. Music Mentor Books, 2001)

Practice:

(a) "Kevin told a wonderful _____ about an angel who falls in love with a girl and then becomes human so that he can be with her."
(Christopher Pike, The Midnight Club, 1991)
(b) A dog wags its _____ with its heart.

Answers

(a) "Kevin told a wonderful tale about an angel who falls in love with a girl and then becomes human so that he can be with her."
(Christopher Pike, The Midnight Club, 1991)
(b) A dog wags its tail with its heart.

See also:

Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words

 "A Misspelled Tail," by Elizabeth T. Corbett

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Nordquist, Richard. "Tail and Tale." ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/tail-and-tale-1689503. Nordquist, Richard. (2021, February 16). Tail and Tale. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/tail-and-tale-1689503 Nordquist, Richard. "Tail and Tale." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/tail-and-tale-1689503 (accessed June 5, 2023).