Meaning & use
told
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“told” is a form of “tell”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbtransitive
Past tense and past participle of tell: gave information, an instruction or a story to someone.
Grammar: Needs a person as object: she told me, not she told that.
Patterns
- told someone something
- told someone to do something
- told someone that something
My brother told me the news over the phone.
The coach told us to stretch before the game.
She told the children a story about a dragon.
verbtransitive or intransitive
Past tense of tell meaning to recognize or distinguish one thing from another.
Grammar: Often with can or could, and with apart: I could not tell them apart.
Patterns
- told the difference
- told A from B
I never could have told the twins apart.
Even in the dark, she told the coins from each other by touch.
Word forms
| base form | tell |
|---|---|
| third person singular | tells |
| -ing form | telling |
Common combinations
- told me
- He told me he was moving to Canada.
- all told
- All told, we collected two hundred dollars.
- told off
- The teacher told him off for being late.
- been told
- I have been told the office is closed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- informed
- Informed is more formal and stresses giving facts.
- said
- Said does not take a person directly: she said hello, but she told me hello does not work.
- instructed
- Instructed is formal and always means giving an order or directions.
Word family
Commonly confused: told or said?
told vs said
Said can follow no person, as in she said that, while told needs a person: she told him that.
Practice
She ______ me that the meeting was moved to Friday.
Choose one answer.
Told takes a person object (me). Said would need to omit me; spoke and talked need prepositions.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “told”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.