Tell in Different Languages
Discover 'Tell' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Tell
Afrikaans vertel | ||
Albanian tregoj | ||
Amharic ንገረኝ | ||
Arabic يخبار | ||
Armenian պատմել | ||
Assamese কওক | ||
Aymara saña | ||
Azerbaijani deyin | ||
Bambara ka lakali | ||
Basque kontatu | ||
Belarusian скажыце | ||
Bengali বলুন | ||
Bhojpuri कहीं | ||
Bosnian reci | ||
Bulgarian казвам | ||
Catalan dir | ||
Cebuano isulti | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 告诉 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 告訴 | ||
Corsican cuntà | ||
Croatian reći | ||
Czech sdělit | ||
Danish fortælle | ||
Dhivehi ބުނުން | ||
Dogri दस्सो | ||
Dutch vertellen | ||
English tell | ||
Esperanto rakontu | ||
Estonian ütle | ||
Ewe gblᴐ | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) sabihin | ||
Finnish kertoa | ||
French dire | ||
Frisian fertelle | ||
Galician contar | ||
Georgian უთხარი | ||
German sagen | ||
Greek λέγω | ||
Guarani e | ||
Gujarati કહો | ||
Haitian Creole di | ||
Hausa gaya | ||
Hawaiian haʻi | ||
Hebrew לאמר | ||
Hindi कहना | ||
Hmong qhia | ||
Hungarian mond | ||
Icelandic segja | ||
Igbo gwa | ||
Ilocano ibaga | ||
Indonesian menceritakan | ||
Irish insint | ||
Italian raccontare | ||
Japanese 教えて | ||
Javanese marang | ||
Kannada ಹೇಳಿ | ||
Kazakh айтыңыз | ||
Khmer ប្រាប់ | ||
Kinyarwanda bwira | ||
Konkani सांगप | ||
Korean 텔 | ||
Krio tɛl | ||
Kurdish gotin | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) پێ ووتن | ||
Kyrgyz айтып бер | ||
Lao ບອກ | ||
Latin amen dico | ||
Latvian pastāstīt | ||
Lingala koyebisa | ||
Lithuanian pasakyk | ||
Luganda okugamba | ||
Luxembourgish erzielen | ||
Macedonian кажи | ||
Maithili कहू | ||
Malagasy milaza | ||
Malay memberitahu | ||
Malayalam പറയുക | ||
Maltese għid | ||
Maori korero | ||
Marathi सांगा | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯍꯥꯏꯕ | ||
Mizo hrilh | ||
Mongolian хэлэх | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ပြောပြပါ | ||
Nepali बताउनुहोस् | ||
Norwegian fortelle | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) nenani | ||
Odia (Oriya) କୁହ | ||
Oromo himuu | ||
Pashto ووايه | ||
Persian بگویید | ||
Polish powiedzieć | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) contar | ||
Punjabi ਦੱਸੋ | ||
Quechua willay | ||
Romanian spune | ||
Russian рассказать | ||
Samoan taʻu atu | ||
Sanskrit कथय | ||
Scots Gaelic innis | ||
Sepedi botša | ||
Serbian кажи | ||
Sesotho bolella | ||
Shona taura | ||
Sindhi ٻڌاءِ | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) කියන්න | ||
Slovak povedz | ||
Slovenian povej | ||
Somali sheeg | ||
Spanish contar | ||
Sundanese ngawartosan | ||
Swahili sema | ||
Swedish säga | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) sabihin mo | ||
Tajik нақл кунед | ||
Tamil சொல்லுங்கள் | ||
Tatar әйт | ||
Telugu చెప్పండి | ||
Thai บอก | ||
Tigrinya ንገር | ||
Tsonga byela | ||
Turkish söylemek | ||
Turkmen aýt | ||
Twi (Akan) ka kyerɛ | ||
Ukrainian скажи | ||
Urdu بتاؤ | ||
Uyghur ئېيتىپ بەر | ||
Uzbek ayt | ||
Vietnamese nói | ||
Welsh dywedwch | ||
Xhosa xelela | ||
Yiddish דערציילן | ||
Yoruba sọ | ||
Zulu tshela |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The word "vertel" in Afrikaans may be derived from the Middle Dutch word "vertellen," or from the Old French word "vertir" |
| Albanian | Derived from Proto-Albanian *tregu̯-a, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreǵʰ- |
| Amharic | The Amharic verb "ንገረኝ" can also mean "to teach" or "to notify". |
| Arabic | يخبُر، أخبار, خَبَر - to inform. The noun 'خبر' can also means 'news'. |
| Armenian | The word "պատմել" is also used in the sense of "to recount" or "to relate" a story. |
| Azerbaijani | The word "deyin" in Azerbaijani, meaning "tell," has an alternate meaning of "to advise" and is derived from the Proto-Turkic root *ti- "to speak," also found in Turkish "demek" and Kazakh "deyt"} |
| Basque | Basque verb 'kontatu' relates 'counting' and 'narrating' through the notion of 'enumerating', akin to 'account'. |
| Belarusian | In addition to its primary meaning of "tell," the Belarusian word "скажыце" can also mean "say" or "speak." |
| Bengali | The word "বলুন" can also mean "to speak" or "to say". |
| Bosnian | "reci" can also refer to "quote". |
| Bulgarian | In Bulgarian, "казвам" has Slavic roots and also means "call," "invite," "ask" or "say". |
| Catalan | In Catalan, "dir" is a shortened form of "decir" in Spanish, which shares the same Latin root "dicere" with the English word "dictate". |
| Cebuano | The word ''isulti'' comes from the Proto-Austronesian words *siul* or *sulit*, which both mean 'to relate something' or 'to give an account'. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | "告诉"在古汉语中可作动词，本义为‘通告’，后引申为‘报告’、‘告知’等含义。 |
| Chinese (Traditional) | The word “告訴” can also mean “to sue” or “to prosecute” in a court of law. |
| Croatian | The Croatian word "reći" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *rešti, meaning "to speak" or "to say". |
| Czech | The word "sdělit" can also mean "to communicate" or "to inform" in Czech. |
| Danish | The word 'fortælle' derives from the Middle Danish word 'forthællæ', meaning 'to set forth a story' or 'to interpret a tale'. |
| Dutch | In Limburgish, a dialect spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, "vertellen" also means "to translate". |
| Esperanto | The word "rakontu" is etymologically linked to the Latin word "reconta" meaning "to count again". |
| Estonian | The word "ütlen" is also derived from the Proto-Finnic word "ütän," which means "to say" or "to speak." |
| Finnish | The word "kertoa" is cognate with the English word "hearth" |
| French | French "dire" also means "to predict" as in, "On peut dire que le temps va changer" (We can say that the weather is going to change). |
| Frisian | The word ‘fertelle’ can also mean ‘to count’ which likely derives from an Old-Frisian word ‘fertalle’ referring to ‘counting or calculating’. |
| Galician | In Galician, "contar" can also mean "to count" or "to add up". |
| Georgian | The word უთხარი, which means "tell," also has a secondary meaning of "to convey a message from one person to another." |
| German | The word "sagen" also means "to saw" and "to speak." |
| Greek | The word "λέγω" comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *leg-, meaning "to gather, collect." |
| Gujarati | The word "કહો" also means "speak" or "say" in Gujarati. |
| Haitian Creole | The word "di" in Haitian Creole is derived from the French word "dire"} |
| Hausa | The word "gaya" can also mean "to say" or "to speak" in Hausa. |
| Hawaiian | The word "haʻi" also means "to speak" in Hawaiian and is related to the word "ha" which means "breath". |
| Hebrew | "לאמר" can also mean "say" or "speak" in some contexts. |
| Hindi | Hindi word 'कहना' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'kr'. It also means 'to speak', 'to say', or 'to utter' |
| Hmong | The word “qhia” (tell) also means “to narrate, to inform, to declare, to announce, to communicate, to state, to report, to describe, to explain, to interpret, to translate, to read, to write, to record, to document, to testify, to witness, to give an account of, to make known, to publicize, to spread the word, to let someone know, to keep someone informed, to fill someone in, to give the scoop, to dish the dirt, and to spill the beans. |
| Hungarian | In Old Hungarian, the word "mond" also meant "speech, talk, conversation". |
| Icelandic | "Segja" derives from the Old Norse word "segja", meaning "to utter words" or "to announce" |
| Igbo | The word "gwa" can also mean "to inform" or "to announce" in Igbo. |
| Indonesian | "Menceritakan" can also mean "to narrate", "to relate", or "to recount". |
| Irish | The Irish word "insint" originates from the Old Irish verb "insním," which means "to tell" or "to relate a story." |
| Italian | "Raccontare" comes from the Latin word "computare," meaning to count or to recount, and it has also been used in Italian to mean to calculate or to reason. |
| Japanese | The verb "oshiete" has an original meaning of "to guide" or "to show". |
| Javanese | Marang can also mean 'to' or 'towards' in Javanese language. |
| Kannada | ಹೇಳಿ (hēḷi) can also mean to ask, request, command, advise or suggest. |
| Kazakh | The word "айтыңыз" in Kazakh is derived from the Proto-Turkic verb "ayt-", meaning "to speak". In addition to "tell", it can also mean "to say", "to utter", or "to recite". |
| Khmer | "ប្រាប់" (praap) can mean either "to tell" or "to give". In the latter sense, it is often used when offering something. |
| Korean | '텔' can refer to a hill in Korean, which is related to the Japanese 'tera' (temple) as the characters are cognate. |
| Kurdish | The word "gotin" in Kurdish is also used to mean "to explain" or "to inform". |
| Kyrgyz | The verb "айтып бер" can also mean "to narrate" or "to recite." |
| Lao | The word "ບອກ" can also mean "to inform" or "to let know" |
| Latin | "Amen dico" is a Latin phrase used in the Bible to solemnly introduce an important statement, and can be translated as "truly, I say to you" |
| Latvian | The Latvian word "pastāstīt" also means "to dictate" or "to recite". |
| Lithuanian | "Pasakyk" can mean either "to tell" or "to recite". |
| Luxembourgish | In Luxembourgish, "erzielen" can also mean "to obtain" or "to achieve". |
| Macedonian | The word "кажи" also means "show" or "prove" in some Slavic languages, including Russian and Bulgarian. |
| Malagasy | The Malagasy word "milaza" derives from the Proto-Austronesian word "*laCay" (to speak). |
| Malay | It may refer to the "memberitahu ke" form, used before an inanimate object or an entity whose identity is not definite or clear. |
| Malayalam | The word "പറയുക" can also mean "speak," "say," "utter," or "pronounce." |
| Maltese | The Maltese word "għid" is etymologically related to the Arabic word "qāla" with the same meaning, and is also used as a noun referring to a saying, a joke or a proverb. |
| Maori | The Maori word 'korero' can also refer to a formal meeting or assembly where important matters are discussed. |
| Marathi | The Marathi word "सांगा" is also used to refer to a message or news. |
| Mongolian | The word "хэлэх" can also mean "to sing" or "to speak out", depending on the context. |
| Nepali | "बताउनु" means "to tell" in Nepali. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "वक", which means "to speak" or "to tell". |
| Norwegian | Fortelle's archaic Norwegian roots stem from the term 'fortæla,' originating from Old Norse 'fortelja,' and ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European base 'telh-,' meaning 'to hide or cover up.' |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The Nyanja word "nenani" can also refer to the act of narrating a story or providing information. |
| Pashto | The word "ووايه" in Pashto can also refer to the act of informing or communicating. |
| Persian | The word "بگویید" (tell) in Persian is derived from the Middle Persian "goftan" and Proto-Iranian "*gaub-." |
| Polish | The Polish word 'powiedzieć' also implies uttering or speaking out loud. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | In Portuguese, "contar" also means to depend on, to rely upon, or to count on someone or something. |
| Punjabi | The word "ਦੱਸੋ" (daso) in Punjabi can also mean "to show" or "to indicate". |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "spune" has a similar etymological root with the English "speech", and also means "to speak". |
| Russian | Рассказать: 1) reveal; 2) count; 3) lay out (cards); 4) gossip; 5) inform; 6) narrate a story; 7) tell a joke; 8) tell about something; 9) tell on someone; 10) tell fortunes. |
| Samoan | The Samoan word "taʻu atu" can also mean "speak" or "address". |
| Scots Gaelic | Alternate meanings of "innis" include "a piece of land," or, figuratively, something which may be "in one's way." |
| Serbian | In archaic Serbian, "кажи" meant not only "tell" but also "show". |
| Sesotho | The word "bolella" is also used to refer to the act of informing or reporting something. |
| Shona | The Shona word “taura” means “to speak” and is also used as a noun meaning “speech” or “conversation.” |
| Sindhi | In Sindhi, "ٻڌاءِ" (tell) can also refer to "informing", "narrating", or "advising". |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | As a noun, “කියන්න” refers to the act of speaking or uttering words. |
| Slovak | "Povedz" is connected to "vedieť" (know), and also means "say," "speak," "utter," or "recite." |
| Slovenian | The Slovenian word "povej" is derived from Proto-Slavic "*povьďь" and shares its origin with the Slavic words for "tale" and "legend" indicating the historical use of storytelling and narration in the language. |
| Somali | The term "sheeg" can refer to telling someone verbally or via body language. |
| Spanish | "Contar" also means "to matter" or "to count (objects)" in Spanish. |
| Sundanese | "Ngawartosan" is derived from "warta" (news), suggesting the act of conveying information. |
| Swahili | Swahili's "sema" also means "to speak", "to say", "to express", "to announce", "to inform", "to declare", or "to narrate." |
| Swedish | The Swedish word "säga" is derived from the Proto-Germanic word *sagjaną, meaning "to say" or "to speak". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The word "sabihin mo" in Tagalog can also mean "to order" or "to command". |
| Tajik | The word "nakl kune" can mean "report" or "narrate" in addition to "tell." |
| Tamil | The Tamil word சொல்லுங்கள் comes from the root word சொல், which means both "to say" and "to think" or "to suppose". |
| Telugu | The Telugu verb 'చెప్పండి' originates from Sanskrit and is related to words meaning 'to speak' and 'to explain'. |
| Thai | The Thai word "บอก" also means "to report" or "to accuse". |
| Turkish | Söylemek also can mean "to play" or "to sing". |
| Ukrainian | The word "скажи" can also be used as a polite way to ask someone to do something, similar to "please". |
| Uzbek | The Uzbek word "ayt" can also refer to a type of traditional Uzbek storytelling performance. |
| Vietnamese | The word "nói" also means "to talk" or "to speak". |
| Welsh | The Welsh word "dywedwch" can also mean "say" or "speak" |
| Xhosa | The word "Xelela" has an alternate meaning of "to narrate" or "to recite" in the Xhosa language. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "דערציילן" derives from the Middle High German "zirzeln" or "zerzeln" meaning "to tell" or "to relate". |
| Yoruba | The word "sọ" can also mean "to speak" or "to say". |
| Zulu | The word "tshela" in Zulu can also refer to "divulging information" or "exposing something hidden". |
| English | "Tell" originally meant "to count" or "to give an account," a meaning still retained in the noun "tale," a narrative or a count. |