0 to say something to someone, usually giving them information -- говорить, сообщать, рассказывать
He told me about his new school.
[ + (that) ] Sally told me that the play didn't start until 9 o'clock.
[ + question word ] Can you tell me what time the next bus leaves?
1 to order someone to do something -- велеть, приказывать
2 to know or recognize something from what you hear, see, etc -- видеть, понимать
[ + (that) ] You could tell that he was tired.
[ + question word ] You can never tell whether Hajime's being serious or not.
I can't tell the difference between them.
3 If something tells you something, it gives you information. -- говорить, показывать, свидетельствовать
6 used when someone has caused problems for themselves by doing something that you told them not to -- я же говорил!
He told the story of a young clergyman being rebuffed by a belligerently irreligious farmer.
She told a story about a beautiful organ in a church.
He tells her how the book ends, "to save her the trouble of wading through it," as he says.
In the bad, old days, epistemology told us the terms in which to explain everything.
The child tells her imaginary baby two stories of empire, in quick succession.
The manly man 'talks straight', tells it only as it is, and is keen to produce an art which has no ostensible aesthetic purpose.
The difference is that the one tells of what has happened, the other of the kinds of things that might happen.
Eyewitnesses may fail to distinguish between memories of what they actually saw and what they have subsequently been told (or read) about the same event.
