Hey there! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.
Say, speak,
talk,
tell.
Do you know how to use these words correctly in English?
What's the difference between talk and tell?
These are simple everyday verbs
but they are often confused by English learners.
They're so similar that sometimes it's difficult to choose
the correct one.
They're all similar but they are not the same
and there are some important rules that you need
to know to make sure you're speaking English
clearly and accurately.
Can you tell your name?
He said me to meet here.
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and you're excited to learn the difference between talk and tell
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Let's start with the verbs say and tell.
These are both reporting verbs and they're used
to report ideas or information that were expressed
by someone else when they were speaking.
They're also both irregular verbs
so in the present tense we have say and tell
but in the past tense they become
said and told. That's right.
You could be forgiven for thinking these words are synonyms
but actually they are slightly different in their definitions.
Say means to express something using words.
Tell means to give information or instructions to a person
and that is the most important difference.
When you use the verb tell it must always be followed
by a personal object,
the person who is receiving the information.
So it could be their name or a personal pronoun.
Whatever you choose it must be followed by a person.
Let's look at some examples together and I want you to repeat
them out loud with me.
Where are they going?
She didn't say.
Where are they going?
She didn't tell me.
What did he say?
What did he tell you?
Say hi to Paul for me!
Tell Paul I said hi!
So I'm going to keep giving you some examples now
but you'll have to listen carefully because there are
two sentences that are incorrect
so I want you to listen out for them
and tell me down in the comments which ones are wrong.
I want to say something about our teacher.
I want to tell you something about our teacher.
Did he say how it happened?
Did he tell how it happened?
I said their new house was beautiful.
I told them their new house was beautiful.
She said me I would meet him on Sunday.
She told me I would meet him on Sunday.
The most important difference between these two verbs
is that tell must have a person following it.
It must have a personal pronoun or a name
and say needs to use the preposition to
if we want to include who the words were spoken to.
So this one is wrong.
We need a personal object.
Who did he tell the information to?
You?
Them?
Us?
Sarah?
This information is missing from our sentence
so we need to say who.
And this one was wrong as well.
If we need to explain who heard the words
we need to include the preposition to.
She said to me I would meet him on Sunday.
But often this information is not important or it's
not necessary.
She said I would meet him on Sunday.
This is perfectly okay as well.
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Okay so what about the verbs speak and talk?
Just like
say and tell, the verb speak
is irregular.
So in the past tense, we use spoke
and spoken is the past participle
but talk is just a regular verb
so in the past tense we need to add -ed.
Talked.
And to pronounce the past tense form of a regular verb
here we have talk,
we need to add the
sound to the end.
Talked.
Speak and talk are synonyms.
Most of the time you can choose either of these verbs
and use it in your sentence.
But there are a few small differences
that you need to be aware of.
Speak sounds more formal than talk
so it's often used if the speaker and the listener
are not known very well to each other
and it's also more common when you're at work
so in a professional context,
maybe when you're talking on the phone or you're talking
with your boss, speak is the better, more formal verb to use.
Speak also makes it sound more serious or more important
as well so for example,
"Can I speak to you?"
sounds more important or more serious than
"Can I talk to you?"
There is also a little subtle difference
because speak focuses on the person
who is producing the words
whereas talk
focuses on both the speaker and at least one listener
so immediately the feeling suggests
that there is a conversation going on
so it sounds a little strange to say:
They can speak and get to know each other.
Firstly because it sounds quite formal
and secondly because this verb really focuses on the speaker
and not on the conversation so instead of imagining
these two people having a conversation together
we imagine them speaking at each other separately.
It's a subtle, subtle difference but an important one
when you think about that context.
And most importantly you can only use speak
when you're talking about languages.
"They speak Arabic"
not
"They talk Arabic"
Tell me down in the comments
how many languages do you speak?
Notice that I used speak, I would never say:
How many languages do you talk?
because you can't use talk
when you're talking about languages.
So what about the difference between talk and tell?
The important difference to remember is that talk
can't be used to report indirect speech.
It's not possible.
He told me he would be late.
He talked to me he would be late.
So now you've learned the difference between these words,
let's test your knowledge and see if you can get
all ten questions in this quiz right.
Okay, you're gonna see the sentence up on screen,
you'll need to choose the best verb for that sentence.
Did he say how it happened?
I said they would lose the match, didn't I?
I want to tell you something about our teacher.
Jim spoke to his boss about a promotion.
She said we could go on Sunday.
I told you they couldn't afford it.
Did Greg tell you how it happened?
She told me about it on Sunday.
Can I say something to you?
Can you tell him something from me?
Nice work! I hope that you enjoyed this lesson today.
If you did please make sure you give it a like,
subscribe to my channel and make sure you check out
some of my other mmmEnglish lessons,
they'll be right over here in a moment.
But first your homework.
I want you to practise writing four separate sentences
using say, tell, talk and speak.
Drop those four sentences down into the comments
so that I can check your answers for you
and make any corrections if you need them.
Once you've done that come join me in this lesson
right over here.