This is the Rachel’s English 30-Day Challenge! Learn 30 phrasal verbs in 30 days! Jumpstart your vocabulary in 2017. Today is Day 6 and we’re studying “tell” phrasal verbs.

Can you tell apart all of these definitions? To tell something apart is to be able to distinguish between different things. I still have a problem telling the twins apart. This is the same meaning as ‘to tell from’. Can you tell her from her sister? That is, can distinguish between them, do you know who is who?

Tell off is when you are very angry and you yell at someone about something. He broke my sister’s heart, so I told him off. A phrase with the same meaning is to go off on. She went off on me because I accidentally left the oven on.

To tell on somebody is to tell other people something someone did that was bad. Kids use this phrase all the time. Don’t tell me. I’m going to tell on you if you keep doing that!

Tell. This word begins with the True T, te-. The teeth come together, the front top of the tongue goes to the roof of the mouth, tt, and you release into the vowel, EH, te-. Eh. For the EH vowel, the tongue tip stays forward, here, and the middle part lifts just a bit towards the roof of the mouth. Eh, te-. Teelll.

Then we have the Dark L. The tongue tip stays down and the back part of the tongue presses down and pulls back a little bit. Uhl, uhl. You don’t need to lift your tongue tip. Just make this dark sound, uhl. Tell. Tell me, tell me. The tongue tip doesn’t life for the L. If the next word begins with a vowel, like tell off, then make the dark sound and then do lift your tongue tip, tellllllloff. Tell off.

If you do that, I’m going to tell on you, and then mom and dad are going to tell you off.

To catch all of the videos in this 30-day challenge, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and LIKE Rachel’s English on Facebook.

Click the links in the description. This 30-day challenge is leading up to a phrasal verbs course that will be available on my online school on February 1. Rachel’s English Academy is a collection of courses focusing on English conversation, pronunciation, and listening comprehension. You will understand Americans better and speak better English with these courses. Visit rachelsenglishacademy.com to sign up and get started today.