Hey there! This is TOP episode 336. TELL: Useful Phrases (part 1)
You read English. You understand English. You’ve been learning for years, but when it’s time to speak your mind just freezes, and the words don’t come out. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. My name’s Ola, and this is Teacher Ola Podcast. I’m here to help you finally speak out loud. This isn’t about perfect grammar or fancy vocabulary. This is about your voice. Your words. Your real English.
Today we’re going to take one small word that you probably use all the time… and really understand it properly. We’re talking about the verb “tell.” By the end of this episode, you’ll feel much more confident using it in real conversations.
In this part, we’re going to focus on very useful phrases and patterns with “tell” that you can immediately start using when you speak. These are not random examples, these are things people actually say every day.
And speaking of actually speaking… if you’ve been thinking, “Okay, I understand English, but I still don’t speak as much as I’d like,” then this is exactly the moment to change that.
The doors to my course Say It Out Loud (SIOL) are open again, but only until May 10th. This is where we take everything you know and finally turn it into something you can say confidently, naturally, and regularly. Inside, you get my guidance, daily support, and most importantly, access to speaking practice with interactive voice chat that I personally run.
If you want to join us, go to: SIOL.pl.
++And if you feel like you need to refresh your grammar before you start speaking more, I’ve got something for you too. Last weekend I ran a three-day webinar called Wielka Powtórka Angielskich Czasów, and the full replay is available. You can watch it here: teacherola.com/3dni
And now, let’s get into it. Let’s make “tell” finally make sense. We’re going to go through 10 useful phrases with TELL.
Let’s start with a simple idea. Imagine you’ve just heard some news. Maybe something exciting, maybe something important. What do you do next? You share it. And in English, very often, you tell someone.
At its core, “tell” means to give information to someone. You’re passing something from your mind to another person using words. And this is where many learners make a mistake, because “tell” almost always needs a person. We don’t just “tell”, we tell someone something.
So a very natural sentence would be:
He told his family the news.
Or:
She told her manager the truth.
++You can also use “to,” especially when you want to sound a bit more formal:
He told the news to his family.
And if you want to ask about it, you might say:
Did you tell your parents the news?
++Now, in everyday English, we very often drop “to” and go straight to the person:
He told me her name.
He told everybody he went on holiday.
And a very natural question:
Can you tell me the answer?
Now imagine a situation where you warned someone about something, and then… exactly what you said would happen, happens.
That’s when we use:
What did I tell you?
It’s not really a question. It’s more like: “See? I was right.”
For example:
A: I forgot my umbrella and now I’m soaked.
B: What did I tell you?
++Another phrase you’ll hear all the time, especially when someone wants to share something a bit personal or important:
I want to tell you something.
Come here, I want to tell you something.
Hey, I want to tell you something important.
Now let’s make things slightly more general. Sometimes we don’t give one specific piece of information, but we talk more broadly. That’s when we use “about.”
So now we say: tell somebody about something.
For example:
Why didn’t you tell me about the accident?
She told me about her new job.
And a question:
Did he tell you about the meeting?
++Now, another very common pattern is when we introduce a full sentence. That’s when we use “that.”
tell somebody that…
For example:
She told me that she had missed the bus.
He told us that he was moving to another city.
And a question:
Did she tell you that she’d got the job?
++Now let’s talk about how we say things, not just what we say.
If you want to show that you were very direct, maybe even brutally honest, you can say:
I told him straight.
For example:
I told him straight I wasn’t interested.
I told her straight that the idea wouldn’t work.
Now let’s move into something a bit more internal, something you say to yourself.
Sometimes we repeat things in our own head to stay calm or focused.
That’s when we say:
I keep telling myself everything will be fine.
Or in the past:
I kept telling myself not to worry before the exam.
++Now imagine someone tells you something and you just… don’t believe it.
That’s when we use:
Are you telling me…?
It’s full of disbelief.
For example:
Are you telling me you didn’t have time to do the homework?
Are you telling me you forgot about the meeting?
Time to speak! Yes, right herre right now. Listen and repeat out loud. I’ll say each sentence twice, let’s go:
He told his family the news.
Can you tell me the answer?
She told me about her new job.
She told me that she had missed the bus.
What did I tell you?
I want to tell you something.
I told him straight I wasn’t interested.
I keep telling myself everything will be fine.
Are you telling me you didn’t have time to do the homework?
Can you tell me where to go?
++So that’s it for today’s episode on the verb “tell” and if you’re honest with yourself, this is exactly the kind of word that looks simple on the surface, but behaves in many different ways once you start using it in real conversations.
We went through 10 patterns with “tell”, and the goal was not just to understand them, but to feel them,to recognise them when you hear them and use them without overthinking. Now, don’t just leave it here. You can actually practise this episode with a free worksheet I prepared for you. You’ll find it at: teacherola.com/336
++If you want to go further and actually start speaking English with confidence, not just learning about it, but using it, then join my course Say It Out Loud (SIOL). We work together on real speaking, real communication, and you get daily support and live voice chat practice. Enrollment is open until May 10th, and you can join here: SIOL.pl
And if you want to strengthen your grammar foundation at the same time, you can also watch my free webinar replay Wielka Powtórka Angielskich Czasów. The replay is still available at: teacherola.com/3dni
Thank you so much for listening. Stay fearless, take care, and say it out loud. I love you, I believe in you, I know you are ready to speak English. I’m your teacher, Teacher Ola, and you’ve been listening to Teacher Ola Podcast. Bye for now.