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  • Hi, everyone!

  • Think of "tell" and you think of speaking, but "tell" doesn't always mean "tell."

  • Let me tell you why.

  • OK, that time I meant speaking.

  • Not only does the verb 'tell' mean "say something to someone," it also has a meaning similar to "know", "recognize", "understand", or "perceive."

  • We often use it in combination with the verb "can" to make "can tell" for the present and "could tell" for the past.

  • I can tell he's from France.

  • He has an accent!

  • Or we could tell it was going to rain because of the clouds.

  • We often use it to talk about differences.

  • Then, we might use the negative or the question.

  • Can you tell the difference between this cup and that cup?

  • I can't tell the difference between this cup and that cup.

  • We often use "can tell" with the pronoun "you" to talk about something that many people should find obvious.

  • You can tell he's an English teacher.

  • He knows all the answers.

Hi, everyone!

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