I tell you


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I tell you

1. A phrase emphasizing that the speaker is about to present a thought or their opinion on something. I tell you, this burger might be the best I've ever hard.
2. I assure you; please listen to what I am saying because it is important. You've got the wrong man, I tell you!
See also: tell

I ˈtell you

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I can ˈtell you

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I’m ˈtelling you

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I can’t ˈtell you how, etc. ...

(spoken) used to emphasize what you are saying, especially when it is surprising or difficult to believe: It’s not as easy as it looks, I’m telling you. ♢ I can’t tell you how happy I felt (= it is difficult to describe my happiness, because it was so great).
See also: tell
References in classic literature ?
All this that I tell you now, O cousin mine, I have told you many times before, and as you make no answer, I fear that either you believe me not, or do not hear me, whereat I feel God knows what grief.
But what will you say when I tell you now how, among the countless other marvellous things Montesinos showed me (of which at leisure and at the proper time I will give thee an account in the course of our journey, for they would not be all in place here), he showed me three country girls who went skipping and capering like goats over the pleasant fields there, and the instant I beheld them I knew one to be the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso, and the other two those same country girls that were with her and that we spoke to on the road from El Toboso
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But I tell you that the only bitter words that ever came from those sweet lips of hers were on your account, and I hate to see you next her.
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I tell you that I do not need it, that such expenditure is unnecessary.
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