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Elizabeth
Hi! Which variant is more correct and commonly used: time will tell or time will show?
Aug 31, 2023 9:56 AM
Answers · 10
5
Both are correct. "Time will tell" is the more commonly used expression. It just sounds better, maybe because of the two t's.
August 31, 2023
3
Time will tell
August 31, 2023
2
As a native speaker (from Scotland), I rarely hear/read 'time will show', So I have the feeling 'time will tell' is a lot more common. I double checked with Ngram Viewer and it came back pretty much as I expected:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=time+will+tell%2C+time+will+show&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3
August 31, 2023
2
I think 'time will tell' is more correct. I'm not a native speaker, but I read it in my English books written by a native speaker
August 31, 2023
Time will tell
September 1, 2023
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Elizabeth
Language Skills
English, Russian
Learning Language
English
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