Hi guys. Before we start, I want you to look at these three sentences
and decide if any of them are correct. He said me Frank was lazy. George told that he needed to study.
She talks three languages.
Actually, none of these are correct. These should be: He told me Frank was lazy. George
said that he needed to study. And: She speaks three languages. If you're confused, don't worry
because in this video we're going to look at how to use the verbs say, tell, speak and talk correctly.
I'm not going to cover every single possible usage of these words because if I tried to do that,
this video would probably be a couple of hours long, but we will look at the most important points.
As always, remember that you can also follow me on social media, and if you'd like to subscribe
to my free advanced English email lessons, you'll find the link in the description. We're first going
to look at say and tell. Both of these verbs are about using words to express ideas and thoughts.
If you look up the definitions of these words in a dictionary, they might be slightly different.
For example, you might read that for "say" the focus is often on the words that are used, and with
"tell" the focus is usually on the information, but the basic idea is the same. However, from a
grammatical perspective, they are used differently. And by the way, both of these are irregular verbs.
The past simple and past participle of "say" is "said", and the past simple and past participle of
"tell" is "told". The structures that are generally used with these verbs are: to say something
(to somebody), and to tell somebody (something). The parts in parentheses are optional.
Here are some basic examples. Frank said something. If you don't know him yet, this is Frank.
And if you want, you can add "to" plus a noun or an object pronoun. Frank said something to the teacher.
Frank said something to George. Remember, names are a type of noun. Frank said something to him.
You can't say: Frank said the teacher something. Or: Frank said George something.
Or: Frank said him something. You need the word "to" and it goes after "something". Now let's look at
"tell". Frank told George. This sentence is fine by itself, because it's probably clear from the
context what Frank said. If you want to use a pronoun, this sentence becomes: Frank told
him. From now on I'll mainly use pronouns in the examples to make it easier. For example: me, him,
her, etc. But remember that you can replace the pronouns with nouns like "the teacher" or "George".
If you want to add "something" to this sentence, you need to say: Frank told him something. If you
want to make questions out of these, you can say: What did Frank say? What did Frank say to him?
Or: What did Frank tell him? You can't say: What did Frank say him? Or: What did frank tell?
Those are incorrect. Let's now look at direct speech. Direct speech is when you're quoting the
exact words that somebody has said. We usually use "say" for direct speech. Frank said, "I'm bored."
If you want to include who the information is for, you need to add "to" plus a noun or object pronoun.
But here it goes immediately after "said". Frank said to me, "I'm bored."
You can't say: Frank said me, "I'm bored." You need the word "to". Like I said, we usually use "say" for direct
speech, but people sometimes use "tell" if they are providing information or giving an instruction.
This sentence with "tell" is: Frank told me, "I'm bored." You can't say: Frank told, "I'm bored." Because
"tell" needs to be followed by a noun or a pronoun. In this sentence, Frank is giving me information.
An example with an instruction is: The doctor told Frank, "Take two tablets a day." But you can't say, for
example: Frank told me, "Hello." Because hello is not information or an instruction. It's just a greeting.
For direct speech that is not information or an instruction, we always use "say". Frank said, "Hello."
And on a side note, for things like greetings, farewells, apologies, or saying thank you, or
yes or no, we often don't use direct speech. For example: Frank said hello. She never said sorry.
They left without saying thank you.
Frank wanted to leave early, but I said no. Let's now look at reported speech,
which is sometimes called indirect speech. For reported speech you can use say or tell,
but again, you need to be aware of the different grammar that is used. Frank said that he was bored.
If you want to make it clear who the information is for, again you need to add "to" plus
a noun or object pronoun. Frank said to me that he was bored. If you use "tell" the sentence is:
Frank told me that he was bored. And by the way, the "that" in these sentences is optional, which
is why I put it in parentheses. We often use it in formal writing, but when we speak, we don't usually
use "that" in these types of sentences. Now when it comes to giving advice or instructions,
we use "tell" if the information is directed at a specific person or specific people. For example:
I told Frank to read a book. Frank told me to go away. If it's negative, we place "not" before
"to". They told us not to worry. If it's very clear from the context who the information is for, or if
the information is not directed at a specific person, we use "say".
I said to read a book.
They said not to worry. The label says to take one teaspoon after every meal. That's something that
you might read on a medicine bottle, for example. There are just a couple more things you need to
know about say and tell. For words like lie, truth, joke and story, we use "tell". Frank often tells lies.
George told me the truth. Ethel likes to tell jokes.
My colleague told her team a funny story. As you can see in the second and fourth sentences,
if you want to include a pronoun or a noun, you need to place it immediately after "tell".
But be careful. With words like something,
thing, this, that... we use "say". She said something, but I didn't hear all the words.
Frank said a funny thing yesterday.
Did they say that?
It's now time to look at speak and talk. Luckily these are much easier than say and tell, which is
why this section will be a lot shorter. I'm sure you know what these mean. Both of these mean to
say words. And often we can use them interchangeably, but there are some small
differences. And by the way, "talk" is a regular verb, so the past forms are both "talked", and "speak"
is an irregular verb. The past simple is "spoke" and the past participle is "spoken". The main difference
between these two verbs is that "speak" is a little bit more formal and sounds a little bit more
serious than "talk". I said "a little bit" because even in formal situations, people still sometimes use
"talk" and in informal situations, people sometimes still use "speak". I've read in some places that
"speak" should be used in formal situations and "talk" should be used in informal situations,
but honestly, the rule is not that strict. It's just that generally "speak" sounds a bit more serious.
For example, if you're in a meeting at work with some managers, you might say: I spoke with our suppliers
last week. You could also say: I talked with our suppliers last week. That's absolutely
fine. You're not going to shock or offend anybody if you use "talk". It's just that in that situation
it's a little bit more common to use "speak". Now if you saw a friend and had a conversation,
you would probably use "talk". We talked for over an hour. You could also say: We spoke for over an hour.
That's fine too. It's just that the first sentence is a bit more common in that situation.
Another thing that sometimes confuses people is whether we should use "to" or "with" after "speak"
or "talk". Obviously you don't NEED to use "to" or "with". It will depend on the sentence. In these sentences,
for example, it's not necessary. There are also sentences like: My colleague speaks very loudly.
Or: Frank never stops talking. But if you want to indicate the direction
of the language and put a person or a group of people after the verb, you need "to" or "with". Usually
you can use them interchangeably. For example: I talked to (or with) Frank about his tardiness.
I talked to (or with) my colleagues for an hour. In both of these sentences you could also use "speak".
Here is the basic rule for "to" and "with". If you have a conversation between people - if there's
an exchange - you can use either "to" or "with". If, however, you have a situation in which
the talking is basically just going in one direction, you should use "to".
For example: Our managers talked to us about the new rules.
At the assembly the principal spoke to the students about the graffiti. In these
situations there probably isn't an exchange. There's just a person or a group of people
giving information, so we wouldn't use "with" here. Just a couple more points before we finish.
To talk about languages we use "speak". For example: She speaks Chinese.
We speak some Spanish.
How many languages do you speak?
The exception to that rule is if you're talking about the language that people are using in a specific situation.
Then you have a few options. For example: I couldn't understand them because they were speaking Greek.
Here you could also say: ... they were speaking in Greek. Or: ... they were talking in Greek.
But you can't say: They were talking Greek. If you use "talk" for a language, you need "in".
And remember: If we're talking about somebody's ability to communicate in a language,
like in these sentences here, we use "speak". Now the final point for today.
Some of us make noises when we sleep. And I don't mean snoring or farting. Some of us say words.
Sometimes what we say makes sense and sometimes it doesn't, but in any case, here we use "talk". To talk
in one's sleep. We don't say "to speak in one sleep". When Frank drinks too much, he talks in his sleep.
That's it, everybody. I hope you found this useful. If you liked the video, don't forget to
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