Tuesday, February 10, 2015

meaning - "Tell to someone" or "tell someone"?


Sometimes, I have noticed that people, who are around me say sentences like:



You tell to John.




instead of something like



You tell John.



Please tell, is there any meaning difference in these two?



Answer



"You tell to John." is not a complete sentence. It has an indirect object, but no direct object. To be correct, you would need to add something, namely, the information you want them to "tell to John."


Tell [it/this/that/something] to John.


"You tell John." is an appropriate elision if previous context makes it obvious what it is that you want him/her to tell John.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Simple past, Present perfect Past perfect

Can you tell me which form of the following sentences is the correct one please? Imagine two friends discussing the gym... I was in a good s...