What's the difference between "tell A and B" and "distinguish A and B" ?

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"Tell A and B," does not really make sense if you are comparing it to 'distinguish.'

If you are comparing two sets of instructions from a textbook then you may find that on one stage it says "Can you tell A and B apart," and on another page it might say "Can you distinguish A from B."

These two questions mean exactly the same thing - " to distinguish," means to " to tell apart."  Both thing mean to be able to identify the difference between A and B.

"To tell," (someone) something simply means to give them some information.

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Thank you Andrew and Su.Ki !

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Sorry, I made a mistake.
Not "tell A and B" but "tell A from B"

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Following on from Andrew's answer:

You can also use both these verbs with the preposition 'from' and they would have the same meaning. For example:

'Can you tell A from B?' = 'Can you distinguish A from B?'

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