briefly tell vs briefly explain

Both "briefly tell" and "briefly explain" are correct phrases, but they are used in slightly different contexts. "Briefly tell" is commonly used when you want someone to provide a short description or summary of something, while "briefly explain" is used when you want someone to give a concise clarification or justification.

Last updated: March 26, 2024 • 4950 views

briefly tell

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

This phrase is used when you want someone to provide a short description or summary of something.

Examples:

Can you briefly tell me about your trip?
Please briefly tell us what happened at the meeting.

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Let me very briefly tell you what I mean by this, synthesizing the work of many economic historians in the process.
Mimi, can you briefly tell us?
Sólveig, can you briefly tell us what happened here?
So before I talk about this car for the blind, let me briefly tell you about another project that I worked on called the DARPA Urban Challenge.
Moving on from this, I will briefly tell you about the progress made in the first year since the White Paper was adopted.
I wish briefly to tell my fellow Members that we are at the end of a very long negotiation.
Mr President, I shall just speak very briefly to tell Mr De Keyser that he must have been wrongly informed.
I'll tell you briefly what I think of newspapermen.
I would like to tell you briefly about our own experience.
I would prefer to tell you briefly why I decided some time ago to stand for the European Parliament.
I would now briefly like to tell you of our assessment, firstly of the military crisis in Chechnya and, secondly of the humanitarian crisis there.
That, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, is what I wanted to tell you briefly, given the time constraints and that I do not want to detain you further.
I should like to tell you briefly how I, as rapporteur for the committee responsible, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, assess the proposal.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should first of all like to thank Mr Crowley and the committees responsible for their work and their support for the SLIM me tell you briefly what stage we have reached and what we are proposing to do next.
As far as Jerusalem is concerned, let me tell you briefly that the Palestinian position is based on the fact that Jerusalem is part of the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967.The same rules applied to the other Palestinian territories must also be applied to Jerusalem.
But my background - I want to tell you story only briefly.
Let me just tell you, briefly, my personal journey, which led me to come to this point.
I should mention briefly here that physiology textbooks that you can read about will tell you that this is a kind of heretical thing to suggest.
On this subject, I would like to tell the plenary briefly that our negotiating team, chaired by Mr Lewandowski, has reached an agreement with the representatives of the Commission and Council.
Romans 8:18 tells us that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Our persecution by the Antichrist and his followers will last only briefly, perhaps even just 10 days.

Alternatives:

briefly describe
briefly summarize
briefly outline
briefly narrate
briefly recount

briefly explain

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

This phrase is used when you want someone to give a concise clarification or justification.