tell

From Wiktionary
tell is one of the 1000 most common headwords.
television - tell - ten

Pronunciation[change]

Verb[change]

Plain form
tell

Third-person singular
tells

Past tense
told

Past participle
told

Present participle
telling

  1. (transitive) When you tell something to someone, you speak to the person about some fact or idea.
    He always tells the truth.
    I told all of my friends about the Simple English Wiktionary.
    I will not tell anyone.
  2. (transitive) If you tell someone to do something, you are giving them an order.
    My mom told me to clean my room.
  3. (intransitive) If you tell, you let a parent, teacher, police officer, etc. know that somebody did something bad.
    I'm sorry I hit you. I'll give you a dollar if you don't tell.
    If you're lying, your eyes will tell on you.

Related words[change]