Use "to" after tell

[ladan shirali]

Dear Sirs,

having read one of the stories of ESL STORIES - DON'T MESS WITH THE RUSSIANS - I came across this sentence: "they told to Mr. Bayer. «If compared to the Russian bears, your African lions are nothing more than harmless cats.» The bear was brought to a ......"

Now my question is, if to could be used after tell?

THANK YOU IN ANTICIPATION.
ladan shirali

[Mister Micawber]

.
The 'to' is usually omitted, but it is evidently OK-- there sure are a lot of Google hits for 'tell to'!
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mister Micawber

[Yankee]

"Tell to" as it's used here is not at all typical, in my opinion. If one of my students had written this sentence, I would have marked it as incorrect and recommended using either "said to" or just "told".

Where I think you might more typically find 'to' used after 'tell' would be constructions such as these:

That is exactly the way the story was told to me.
These are wonderful fairy tales to tell to children.


Here is what the BNC finds:
http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/saraWeb?qy=tell+to

[ladan shirali]

hi!

thank you yankee, your answer was a great help.
You mentioned types of constructions where using "tell to" is quite typical.
What sort of constructions are they exactly?

thank you,
ladan shirali

[Ahmadov]

[prezbucky]

In this case, "to" should be omitted. Widespread usage -- to refer to Mr. Micawber's allusion to the Google results -- does not necessarily connote correctness, IMHO.

Though, if enough people use something incorrectly (or use an incorrect word), Webster's will take note and include it. (See "cannot" vs. "can not" -- "cannot" is the traditional way of expressing it, but so many have been using "can not" that this mistake has made its way into some dictionaries. Sort of the same thing has happened with "irregardless", which is a logical absurdity. The American Heritage Dictionary gives a scathing dismissal of the non-word.)
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Yankee]

Hi

Typical word order would be tell + someone + something i.e. tell + indirect object + direct object :
He told us the story .

The word 'to' is used if the direct object comes first:
He told the story to us. (tell + direct object + to + indirect object)

John told me the story exactly the same way he told it to you. (This sentence has both of the formats mentioned above. )

It seems to me that the possible use of 'tell to (someone)' has to do with the 'something' (the direct object) being mentioned/used earlier in the sentence and when the reference is to something that is narrated or related in a detailed way:

John has written many wonderful tales of adventure, all of which he tells to his children. (which = tales, and the word 'to' can also be omitted)
The story was told to us. (Passive voice -- The direct object has become the subject of the sentence and the word 'to' should not be omitted)

NinaZara came up with a good example in this thread:
Do you like marihuana?
http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic15929-30.html

[Conchita]

[prezbucky]

LOL, don't thank me. Thank Torsten and Slava, s'il vous plait (hope I didn't murder that).

----

I don't know how I feel about "noone" vs. "no one". I must admit that "noone" looks funny. On the other hand, as a synonym of "nobody", I'm wont to write it as one word (respecting their similarity).

On the other hand, "no one" certainly looks better.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Mister Micawber]

.
Not a 'scathing dismissal' of 'irregardless', Tom-- just an observation:

'Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.'

As for can not, you'll find that the two forms have been optional for at least a hundred years:

Cannot. [Can to be able _ -not.] Am, is, or are, not able; -- written either as one word or two. (Webster's 1913)

Usage note Cannot is sometimes also spelled can not. The one-word spelling is by far the more common (Random House 2006)
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mister Micawber

[prezbucky]

Fine, but "cannot" is better.

hehe

I've read that in standard usage it is better to use cannot.

"I cannot eat rice."

"Can not", on the other hand, is more useful when emphasis is necessary:

"I can not eat another bite!"
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[prezbucky]

Or we could boycott both and opt for the sentiment-neutral "can't".

hehe
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Mister Micawber]

.
Not sentiment-neutral: It is informal, as are all contractions.
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mister Micawber

[prezbucky]

I mean... lacking the sentiment of "cannot vs. can not", for obstinate ones like moi.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.