How do you tell if it's a permutation or a combination?

With PERMUTATIONS   - ORDER COUNTS

There will always be more permutations than combinations (unless the number of elements in the answer is 0 or 1).

with combintations order does not count

A combination counts sets......a permutation also considers order within a set.

Thus....

A combination would consider the sets {1, 2} and {2, 1} to be the same thing....one set.

A permutation would count them as two different sets.......