hear tell
To catch news by word of mouth, not from seeing it yourself.
Also called hearn tell, heern tell.
Updated September 24, 2026
hear tell pronunciation
/heer TEL/
Meaning
Means you learned something through talk, gossip, or secondhand report. Classic porch and feed-store phrasing: "I hear tell that..." You are not claiming you watched it happen. You are passing along what folks have been saying.
How folks use it
- “I hear tell they're putting a new roof on the old barn.”
- “You ever hear tell of a man catching a catfish that big?”
Origin and etymology
Old English phrase meaning to hear by report, going back centuries. It traveled with Scots and Ulster speech into Southern and South Midland American English. The Dictionary of American Regional English tags it chiefly South and South Midland. Appalachian writers kept forms like "heern tell" and "I heern tell you was..."
Frequently asked questions
Is hear tell the same as I heard?
Close, but hear tell usually stresses rumor or secondhand news, not something you witnessed.