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I do not understand this instruction.
Explain the rule to me, and I will help.
Explain me the rule?
In standard English, we normally say explain therule to me.
Welcome to Fix It in Five from Your EnglishToolbox.
Today, let us fix the pattern after the verbexplain.
The simple structure is explain something tosomeone.
First comes the thing you explain.
Then say to, followed by the person.
For example, explain the problem to your manager.Or explain the new app to me.
We cannot usually put the person directly afterexplain.
So, explain me the problem is not the standardpattern.
Compare that with give.
You can say, give me the form or give the form tome.
But explain behaves differently. Say, explain theanswer to me.
We can also move the thing into a that clause.
Please explain to me why the train is late.
Notice that to me comes before the long question.
Another natural sentence is, she explained to ushow the system works.
Explain can also appear without naming the person.
Could you explain the schedule?
That sentence is complete because the person isunderstood.
You can also use this pattern in a question.
Could you explain the schedule to the new team?
And in the past tense, she explained the delay toher customers.
If the information is a question, put to me beforethe question clause.
Please explain to me what happened.
Do not confuse explain with tell.
You can tell me the answer, but explain the answerto me.
The verb tell commonly allows the person directlyafter it.
Explain normally needs to before the person.
Let us correct three sentences.
Explain me the instructions.
03:00
Explain the instructions to me.
Can you explain us the difference?
Can you explain the difference to us?
And explain to me why it changed is also natural.
The pattern is, explain something to someone.
Keep the pattern clear.
Explain something to someone.
With a pronoun, say, explain it to me, not explainme it.
Ask, could you explain the schedule to us?
Now imagine you do not understand a rule.
Ask someone to explain it.
Could you explain the rule to me?
Good.
Tell me the rule is different because tell cantake two objects.
Compare tell me the answer with explain the answerto me.
You can say, explain it to me slowly becauseslowly describes how someone explains it.
If you mean tell me about my behavior, say,explain my behavior to me.
The episode page has a printable transcript so youcan review the complete pattern and examples.
Keep learning one clear pattern at a time.