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student asking question

How come "like to tell" was used not just "told" here? Is there any difference between those two?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"Liked to tell" in this case implies that someone often told, or enjoyed telling people about something. This is slightly different from just saying "told", as this doesn't imply frequency or emotion from the action of having "told" someone something. Since "liked" is the main verb in the phrase "liked to tell", "liked" is use in the past tense here, and "told" becomes "tell".

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