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German Bayo
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.
8 Thg 06 2016 16:26
Câu trả lời · 2
Two patterns:
1. We can tell the difference between two things.
2. We can distinguish between two things.
=> We can tell the difference between the cultures of the different neighborhoods.
8 tháng 6 năm 2016
I don't quite understand your question. Good synonyms for distinguish here would be ascertain, discern, identify, figure out, determine.
Your original sentences:
Once I got to that town I could distinguish the cultural differences between the neighbourhoods. - good but I took out different
Once I got to that town I could clearly tell the cultural differences between the neighbourhoods. - good but I took out different
Once I got to that town it was easy to tell apart the cultural differences between the different neighbourhoods. - Once I got to that town, it was easy to tell the cultural differences between neighbourhoods apart.
Having 'differences' and 'different' in the sentences was redundant to me.
Does this help?
8 tháng 6 năm 2016
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German Bayo
Kỹ năng ngôn ngữ
Tiếng Catalan, Tiếng Anh, Tiếng Pháp, Tiếng Tây Ban Nha
Ngôn ngữ đang học
Tiếng Anh, Tiếng Pháp
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