folk tale vs tale

folk tale and tale both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
folk tale	Yes	No	No	No
tale	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, tale is a hypernym of folk tale; that is, tale is a word with a broader meaning than folk tale:

folk tale: a tale circulated by word of mouth among the common folk
tale: a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program

Other hypernyms of folk tale include narration, narrative, story.

folk tale (noun)	tale (noun)
a tale circulated by word of mouth among the common folk	a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
	a trivial lie