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Hey it's okay I get it, the word say is really really tempting and it's really really
easy to use and we use it a lot and there's nothing wrong with the word say, you can say
say as much as you want, I just said it then, see? I've used it about four times already.
However sometimes there's a word that expresses even more than just say, if you think about the
word say as plain bread sometimes I want plain bread a lot of the time I need plain bread I need
it for toast I need it for sandwiches, plain bread is great. However is plain sliced bread
good with soup? No that would be awful in soup, you dip it and it would disintegrate, it's not
always the most appropriate choice. So come with me we're going on a journey. We're going to learn
a couple of different words you can use instead of say, let's expand the vocabulary shall we? Let's
go! "And he was an abba fan!" she added. Add is a lovely verb you can use instead of the word say,
use add when it is an extra sentence on top of what the person has already said,
"He's got really weird hair!" she said, "And he's an abba fan!" she added. Okay let's learn another
word, let's go. Okay pretend this is like one of those foghorn(megaphone) things okay? "Hear ye,
hear ye! I don't think that pineapples belong on pizza!" the man announced. Use announce when it
is a big declaration of something, it's loud it's a statement, you are proclaiming it to the whole
room, it's something that you want everyone to know, imagine someone with one of those telling
something to the whole room, announce. It just wouldn't feel right to say something like this:
"Everyone in section A must report to reception immediately!" she said. Whereas, "Everyone in
section A must report to reception immediately!" she announced. Way better, I understand it,
that makes a lot of sense, let's learn another word. "I'm actually the best swimmer in the team,
so..." he claimed. Claim, claim is brilliant if the thing that the person is saying is
a little bit doubtful, it's, it can't be proved, it's just a an opinion, a statement,
so if someone says something that is not proven to be true and you are unsure you can say that
they claim it, "I'm the best swimmer in the team," he claimed. It's almost like he claimed that but-
Okay moving on! "Actually I once stole money from an old lady!" she divulged. Divulge means to
make known something very secret or sensitive, you know, it might be like a confession,
it's something that is a bit sensitive, maybe it's a secret but you're telling that person,
she divulged and I just mentioned the word confess so we might as well use that one as well,
confess is another really good word you can use instead of say,
use confess if someone is giving all their secrets, they are saying something that they
did that they regret, they feel really bad about it, "Okay okay fine I didn't like the Godfather,
I confess I confess! I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed, I confess!" Okay moving on up moving on
out moving on up nothing can stop me- let's move on. "And that concludes the house tour
as you can see it's a beautiful house perfect for a family like yourselves so if you would like
to put in an offer you can contact me directly, fabulous. Did I mention the house was haunted?"
Okay mention, mention is really good for like a little bit of information, just a little,
just gonna mention that, we would never say mention for something that is really big and
serious hence why in the example the estate agent was trying to make the fact that the house was
haunted seemed very small, like a small thing, that's why she used the word mention because if
she said, "did I tell you the house was haunted?" Tell feels a bit more serious but mention is like,
oh little piece of information, doesn't really matter, so you can use mention for extra little
bits of information that don't carry too much weight. There are three really useful words you
can use instead of say when you are returning words to someone else, so let's say someone
asks you a question or someone says something to you then you can either reply, answer or respond.
Either one of these three are just slightly more advanced and exciting than the word say,
he asked me to marry him I replied yes, she told me to go away I responded by saying I live here,
"well of course I love you!" I answered. So when you are replying to someone, these three words are
slightly more exciting than say but you can still say say, but try these if you want. Okay this next
one is a little bit formal but I don't know you maybe you're quite formal, you might need this:
"The doors are locked and secure!" he reported. Report is normally something you do to a boss or
a manager or a leader, you are telling them, you are updating them with the current situation, what
you've done, you're telling them about the work you've done, or the things that have happened,
it's like giving them a report, if you think about a report you will write down the things
that happened in the year or the month and that's basically the same with this word I'm just telling
you what's happened, but normally we use it with authority figures, I'm reporting to, I don't
know why I just keep thinking of Darth Vader, so we would definitely report to Darth Vader,
definitely and then he would use the Force. Now another thing you can do instead of using say
is you can think about the volume or the effort that someone is putting in when they say those
words so for example we could whisper we could shout or yell we could scream or cry or we could
mumble if you mumble you can't really hear the words that you're saying i'm mumbling...
Or we could stutter, so think about how the words are delivered if they say something in a
particularly interesting way you know they shout it they scream it they yell it they stutter it
then say those words because that helps just paint the picture a lot more it helps tell the story
and it makes your English just sound that more advanced especially if you're doing some kind
of speaking test or an English test, these kinds of words are very juicy. Let's end with declare,
I love this word declare this is quite similar to announce however announce is just
I'm just telling you facts you know, I'm just announcing to you that the shop will be closing
in five minutes, however declare is a bit more grand, it has a bit more
theatricality to it, maybe a king is declaring a new law, "from this day on everyone will
wear purple on a Tuesday! This is the law I declare!" it's like announcing, but with a bit of
jazz to it. So my main point for this video is if you want to make your English more advanced you've
got to start looking for alternatives for some of these basic verbs, definitely if you're doing some
kind of test or some kind of exam and also just for everyday life you know when you're talking to
someone or when a native speaker speaks to you they might use some of these words and it will
really help you to really understand the story that's being told. Thank you so much for watching
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tata!