Spelling.School · How to spell
How to spell tale
What it means: A story, often imaginary, about events or characters.
In a sentence: Once upon a time, a knight told a tale of dragons and magic.
The part people get wrong
Often misspelled as tail or tial.
Sounds like, but is not: tail. Same sound, different spelling and meaning.
Same family: tales, tall tale, fib, lie. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.
Where it comes from: Tale comes from Old English “talu,” meaning “story” or “speech.” Over time, English speakers began to use it not just for stories in general, but also for a made‑up or untrue story, which is how it came to mean a trivial lie.
Patterns it uses: Drop the e before a suffix?
Try spelling it
You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.
Words like this
waste · statement · weak · principle · peace · compliment · dessert · relate
Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.