Mr. Maru: I win again at basketball. I'm the best.

Sparky: You are higher than me. It's not fair.

Mr. Maru: Higher? I'm okay, I didn't smoke.

Sparky: umm, okay. How high are you?

Mr. Maru: I'm not high! Are you a police officer?

Sparky: What are you talking about?

What is the difference between tall and high? We use tall and high in different ways. They may seem the same, but they are a little different. Let's practice the differences.

Tall things and high things

Tall is usually used for people, trees, buildings, poles or towers and other things that are high and narrow. Tall things usually start from the ground and go up to the sky. For example,

Abraham Lincoln was a very tall man.

Tokyo Tower is the tallest building in Japan.

Be careful! High can mean doing drugs. If a person is high, they have smoked a drug or done a drug. So 'He is very high.' means 'He did a lot of drugs.'

High is usually used for things that are wide and have a big base. It can be used for fences, walls, or mountains. High things can touch the ground or be above the ground in the air (high ball, high flag, high bar).

Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan.

The pitcher threw a high ball.

Be careful! We can say 'Mt. Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan.' because it still starts from the ground, but we can not say 'The pitcher threw a tall ball.'

Measuring things with high and tall

We usually use tall for measurements of people, and high for measurements of everything else. For example,

He is 2 meters tall.

Mt. Fuji is 3,776 meters high.

Distance above the Ground with high

High is usually used to talk about the distance of something above the ground. For example,

They hung the flag high.

High and Tall Quiz

Choose the correct word for each sentence.

1) The Empire State Building is a (high/tall) building.

2) Shaq is one of the (tallest/highest) basketball players.

3) This tree is 25 meters (tall/high).

Answers

1) tall 2) tallest 3) high