can tell, can't tell, tell apart and distinguish Hello everybody, I would appreciate if any of you could help me with those expressions. I'm looking for the most accurate synonym for "distinguish". What would it be the difference in terms of meaning between all these sentences? Once I got to that town I could distinguish the cultural differences between the different neighbourhoods Once I got to that town I could clearly tell the cultural differences between the different neighbourhoods. Once I got to that town it was easy to tell apart the cultural differences between the different neighbourhoods. My main doubt in fact is about the difference in affirmative between can tell and tell apart, since I've seen "can tell" more as a synonym of "to notice" rather than "distinguish" so I'm not fairly sure when using either. Thank you very much in advance for your time.