Tall describes a person's height or the height of a narrow object such as a tree or a building; high describes something far above the ground, or a high level: prices, temperature, salary. Both are about height, which is why they are easy to confuse. A person's height is always tall: She's very tall.
tall or high — can you pick the right one?
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tall + person/tree/building; high + mountain/wall/shelf/ceiling; high + price/level/temperature/salary; number + metres tall/high
- The new office is in a tall glass building next to the station.
- Rents near the university are high, so most students share a flat.
- We climbed quite high, and the view over the valley was amazing.
What changed
First versionMy younger brother is already higher than me.
RevisionMy younger brother is already taller than me.
For a person's height English uses only tall, and the comparison is built from it too: taller than me. High can seem like an all-purpose word for height, but it describes position above the ground or a level, not how tall someone is.
Tall describes the height of a narrow object itself; high shows how far something is from the ground, or the height of a wide object. A tall tree is simply a tree of great height, but a high shelf is a shelf fixed high up. Mountains and walls are usually high: a high mountain, a high wall.
Your turn
The plane was flying so ___ that it looked like a tiny silver dot.
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high — The sentence is about how far the plane is from the ground, and that is high. Tall describes the height of an object or person itself, and the plane hasn't grown taller; it has climbed.
Describe the street or area where you live. Use tall for a building or tree and high to talk about prices or rent.
There are several tall trees outside my window, but rents in our area are quite high.
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