different between tell vs converse
tell
English
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) enPR: t?l, IPA(key): /t?l/, /t??/
- Rhymes: -?l
Etymology 1
From Middle English tellen (“to count, tell”), from Old English tellan (“to count, tell”), from Proto-Germanic *taljan?, *talzijan? (“to count, enumerate”), from Proto-Germanic *tal?, *tal? (“number, counting”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian tälle (“to say; tell”), West Frisian telle (“to count”), West Frisian fertelle (“to tell, narrate”), Dutch tellen (“to count”), Low German tellen (“to count”), German zählen, Faroese telja. More at tale.
Verb
tell (third-person singular simple present tells, present participle telling, simple past and past participle told)
- (transitive, archaic outside of idioms) To count, reckon, or enumerate.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:
- And in his lap a masse of coyne he told, / And turned vpsidowne, to feede his eye / A couetous desire with his huge threasury.
- 1875, Hugh MacMillan, The Sunday Magazine:
- Only He who made them can tell the number of the stars, and mark the place of each in the order of the one great dominant spiral.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:
- (transitive) To narrate.
- 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
- Tell her you’re here.
- Tell her you’re here.
- 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
- (transitive) To convey by speech; to say.
- (transitive) To instruct or inform.
- 1611, Bible (King James Version), Genesis xii. 18
- Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
- 1611, Bible (King James Version), Genesis xii. 18
- (transitive) To order; to direct, to say to someone.
- 1909, H. G. Wells, Ann Veronica
- She said she hoped she had not distressed him by the course she had felt obliged to take, and he told her not to be a fool.
- Stability was restored, but once the re-entry propulsion was activated, the crew was told to prepare to come home before the end of their only day in orbit.
- 1909, H. G. Wells, Ann Veronica
- (intransitive) To discern, notice, identify or distinguish.
- Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.
- (transitive) To reveal.
- (intransitive) To be revealed.
- 1990, Stephen Coonts, Under Siege, 1991 Pocket Books edition, ?ISBN, p.409:
- Cherry looks old, Mergenthaler told himself. His age is telling. Querulous — that's the word. He's become a whining, querulous old man absorbed with trivialities.
- 1990, Stephen Coonts, Under Siege, 1991 Pocket Books edition, ?ISBN, p.409:
- (intransitive) To have an effect, especially a noticeable one; to be apparent, to be demonstrated.
- 1859 John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
- Opinion ought [… to give] merited honour to every one, whatever opinion he may hold […] keeping nothing back which tells, or can be supposed to tell, in their favour.
- 1859 John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
- (transitive) To use (beads or similar objects) as an aid to prayer.
- (intransitive, childish) To inform someone in authority about a wrongdoing.
- I saw you steal those sweets! I'm going to tell!
- (authorship, intransitive) To reveal information in prose through outright expository statement -- contrasted with show
- Maria rewrote the section of her novel that talked about Meg and Sage's friendship to have less telling and more showing.
Usage notes
- In dialects, other past tense forms (besides told) may be found, including tald/tauld (Scotland), tawld (Devonshire), teld (Yorkshire, Devonshire), telled (Northern England, Scotland, and in nonstandard speech generally), telt (Scotland, Geordie), tole (AAVE, Southern US, and some dialects of England), toll (AAVE), tolt (AAVE).
- In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb tell had the form tellest, and had toldest for its past tense.
- Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form telleth was used.
Conjugation
Synonyms
- (enumerate): count, number; see also Thesaurus:count
- (narrate): narrate, recount, relate
- (to instruct or inform): advise, apprise; See also Thesaurus:inform
- (reveal): disclose, make known; See also Thesaurus:divulge
- (inform someone in authority): grass up, snitch, tattle; See also Thesaurus:rat out
Antonyms
- (to instruct or inform): ask
Derived terms
Translations
Noun
tell (plural tells)
- A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold.
- (archaic) That which is told; a tale or account.
- April 4, 1743, Horace Walpole, letter to Sir Horace Mann
- I am at the end of my tell.
- April 4, 1743, Horace Walpole, letter to Sir Horace Mann
- (Internet) A private message to an individual in a chat room; a whisper.
See also
- dead giveaway
Etymology 2
From Arabic ????? (tall, “hill, elevation”) or Hebrew ????? (tél, “hill”), from Proto-Semitic *tall- (“hill”).
Noun
tell (plural tells)
- (archaeology) A hill or mound, originally and especially in the Middle East, over or consisting of the ruins of ancient settlements.
Norwegian Bokmål
Verb
tell
- imperative of telle
tell From the web:
- what tells the hardware what to do and how to do it
- what tells your cells what to do
- what tells a ribosome how to assemble a protein
- what tells the story of a chemical reaction
- what tells you population density
- what tells the heart to beat
- what tells the ribosome to start
- what tells an atom's identity
converse
English
Etymology 1
From Old French converser, from Latin conversor (“live, have dealings with”)
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /k?n?v??s/
- (US) enPR: k?nvûrs', IPA(key): /k?n?v?s/
- Rhymes: -??(?)s
Verb
converse (third-person singular simple present converses, present participle conversing, simple past and past participle conversed)
- (formal, intransitive) to talk; to engage in conversation
- 1695, John Dryden (translator), Observations on the Art of Painting by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy
- We had conversed so often on that subject.
- 1695, John Dryden (translator), Observations on the Art of Painting by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy
- to keep company; to hold intimate intercourse; to commune; followed by with
- 1727, James Thomson, Summer
- To seek the distant hills, and there converse
With nature.
- To seek the distant hills, and there converse
- 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion
- But to converse with heaven — This is not easy.
- 1727, James Thomson, Summer
- (obsolete) to have knowledge of (a thing), from long intercourse or study
- 1689-1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book II
- according as the objects they converse with afford greater or less variety
- 1689-1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book II
Derived terms
- conversation
Translations
Noun
converse
- (now literary) free verbal interchange of thoughts or views; conversation; chat.
- 1728, Edward Young, Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire V, On Women, lines 44-46:
- Twice ere the sun descends, with zeal inspir'd, / From the vain converse of the world retir'd, / She reads the psalms and chapters for the day […]
- 1919, Saki, ‘The Disappearance of Crispina Umerleigh’, The Toys of Peace, Penguin 2000 (Complete Short Stories), p. 405:
- In a first-class carriage of a train speeding Balkanward across the flat, green Hungarian plain, two Britons sat in friendly, fitful converse.
- 1728, Edward Young, Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire V, On Women, lines 44-46:
Etymology 2
From Latin conversus (“turned around”), past participle of converto (“turn about”)
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /?k?nv??s/
- (US) enPR: k?n'vûrs, IPA(key): /?k?nv?s/
Adjective
converse (not comparable)
- opposite; reversed in order or relation; reciprocal
Noun
converse (plural converses)
- the opposite or reverse
- (logic) of a proposition or theorem of the form: given that "If A is true, then B is true", then "If B is true, then A is true."
equivalently: given that "All Xs are Ys", then "All Ys are Xs".- All trees are plants, but the converse, that all plants are trees, is not true.
- (semantics) one of a pair of terms that name or describe a relationship from opposite perspectives; converse antonym; relational antonym
Derived terms
- conversely
Translations
Anagrams
- Cervones, conserve, coveners, encovers
French
Pronunciation
Adjective
converse f sg
- feminine singular of convers
Verb
converse
- first-person singular present indicative of converser
- third-person singular present indicative of converser
- first-person singular present subjunctive of converser
- third-person singular present subjunctive of converser
- second-person singular imperative of converser
Italian
Alternative forms
- convergé (rare)
Verb
converse
- third-person singular past historic of convergere
Anagrams
- conserve, scernevo
Latin
Participle
converse
- vocative masculine singular of conversus
Portuguese
Verb
converse
- first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of conversar
- third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of conversar
- third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of conversar
- third-person singular (você) negative imperative of conversar
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kom?be?se/, [kõm?be?.se]
Verb
converse
- Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of conversar.
- First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of conversar.
- Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of conversar.
- Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of conversar.
converse From the web:
- what converse should i get
- what converse size am i
- what's converse in math
- converse meaning
- what converse color should i get
- what converse should i get quiz
- what converse are in style
- what converse in geometry
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