The EASY Way to Learn and Remember: SAY / TELL / SPEAK / TALK

Hello, lovely students, and welcome back to  English with Lucy. 'Say', 'tell', 'speak'  

and 'talk'. What is the difference? How do we use  them? How can we stop making mistakes with them?

Is it—'She said me' or 'she told me'? Is it—'I  need to speak to you' or 'I need to talk to you'?

I promise you that in this lesson, I will make  'say', 'tell', 'speak' and 'talk' crystal clear  

for you—no more problems! And to help you, I have  also created a free PDF to go with this lesson.

It contains all of the information  from this lesson, plus more examples  

and more information—and some  secret interactive activities.

Use these for further practice!

If you would like to download the  free PDF, just click on the link  

in the description box or scan the QR code there,

enter your name and your email  address, select your level of English.

You sign up to my mailing list, and the  PDF will arrive directly in your inbox.

After that, you will automatically receive  my free weekly PDFs alongside my news,  

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We will start with 'say' and 'tell'. First,  

I am not surprised that students  confuse 'say' and 'tell'.

They have very similar meanings,  but we use them in different ways.

Let's start with direct speech,

and, here, we are focusing on written  

language. Which word would you use to  complete this sentence—'said' or 'told'?

'I like tea,' _ Eliza.

You should use 'said'.

You can write 'said Eliza' or 'Eliza said'.

You could also use a pronoun, but pronouns always  come before 'said'. 'She said' not 'said she'.

How about in this sentence?  'I like tea,' Eliza _ us.

In that sentence we use 'told'.

That's the past of 'tell'. 'Tell' is followed by  an object pronoun. In this case 'us'. We 'tell  

somebody,' our message is directed at someone  and we are transferring information to them.

'Say' is usually used without  a personal object after it,  

but if we want to add a personal  object after 'say,' we use 'to'.

For example—'I like tea,'

Eliza said (to us).

We can't use an object  pronoun directly after 'say'.

'Eliza said us'—would be wrong.

Now, 'say' without an object after it is much  more common than 'tell' in direct speech,  

because 'say' usually focuses  on the actual words spoken.

We only use 'tell' when someone is  giving information, facts or an order.

Remember, with 'tell', we  are transferring a message.

Now, the good news is that we can pretty  much always use 'say' in direct speech.

Here are some examples—'That  looks lovely!' said Tim.

We use 'say' with exclamations like this.

'Good afternoon everyone,' said the  teacher. We use 'say' with greetings.

'Does anyone want a biscuit?' said Roberto.

We can use 'say' with questions,  although we often use 'ask', too.

'I'll be back in a moment,'  said Polly or Polly told us.

This statement gives information  so we can use 'say' or 'tell'.

'Stop talking!' he said or he told us.

This is an order. 

To report someone's words in direct speech  when we are actually speaking to someone,  

we usually use 'say'. For example—What  did he say? He said, 'Stop talking!'

Now, let's move on to look at 'say' and 'tell'  in indirect speech. Which is correct? Number  

1—'Eliza said me that she likes tea.' Or  number 2—'Eliza told me that she likes tea.'

The second sentence is correct. Did you remember  

that we don't usually use an  object pronoun after 'say'?

The correct version with 'say' would  be—'Eliza said that she likes tea.'

'That' is optional after 'say'  and 'tell' in indirect speech.

Now, how about if we want to report this statement  

from earlier in the video. 'Good  afternoon everyone,' said the teacher.

Here are 3 options, which is correct? Number  1—'The teacher told everyone good afternoon.'  

Number 2—'The teacher said  everyone good afternoon.'  

Or number 3—'The teacher said  good afternoon to everyone.'

Have a think.

Sentence 3 is correct.

Remember, we don't use 'tell' for  greetings. So number 1 doesn't sound  

right. And number 2 isn't correct because we  can't use 'everyone' directly after 'say'.

Three has the pattern—say something to somebody.

Here are a couple more examples like this.

'Don't say anything to anyone.'

'I said hello to her.'

We tend to use this pattern with  indefinite pronouns like 'anything'

and with greetings, uncertain  exclamations like 'hello!'  

I've put more examples and other ways we  use 'say' and 'tell' in indirect speech  

in the PDF that goes with this video.  The link is in the description.

Now, there are some common  phrases in which we use 'tell'

without a personal object pronoun:

'Tell a story', 'tell a joke', 'tell a lie'.

We don't 'say a story'—for  example—'we tell a story'.

We don't really 'say a joke'.  And we very rarely 'say a lie'.

'We tell a story.' 'We tell a joke.'  'We tell a lie.' Do you know any  

more phrases like these? Write them  in the comments section if you do.

We use certain nouns after 'say'  to form common collocations, too.

For example, 'say' plus 'name'.  'Did someone say my name?'

We also have 'not say' plus 'a word'. 'I won't  

say a word about the party.' This  means that you won't say anything.

Before we move on, let's do a little  quiz to test what you've learnt.

Complete the sentences with a form of 'say'  or 'tell'. Number 1—'Did Eliza _ you that  

she likes tea?' Number 2—'I love it when my  parents _ stories about their childhoods.'

And number 3—'It's wonderful to see you!' _  James. Pause the video if you need time to think.

Here are the answers:

'Tell' in the first one because we  have the personal object pronoun 'you'.

'Tell' again in the second  because 'we tell stories'.

And 'said' in the third one because it's an  exclamation and there is no personal pronoun.

Okay, let's focus on 'speak' and 'talk' now.

These 2 verbs also cause a lot of confusion  among my students. But I have good news for  

you. 'Speak' and 'talk' are very similar  in meaning and we can often use either one.

Now, having said that, fluent speakers will often  choose one over the other in certain situations,  

and there are times when we only use  one or the other. Let's look together!

At the beginning of the video, I  showed you these 2 sentences—'I  

need to speak to you,' 'I need to talk to you'.

I want you to think about what the difference is. 

The truth is that both are grammatically correct,  and there's very little difference between them.

However, we often use 'speak'  in more formal situations.

So with these sentences, perhaps  you don't know the other person  

well or you want to discuss something important.

In that case, you would use 'speak'.

We use 'talk' in more informal situations.

Have you ever heard of the phrase  'small talk', 'small talk'?

This is conversation about  unimportant or very ordinary things.

We don't say 'small speak'.

Here are some longer examples  with 'speak' and 'talk'.

'I need to speak to you about the  arrangements for next week's conference.'

This could be said at work, so it might be a  little bit more formal. That's why we use 'speak'.

'I need to talk to you about  the surprise party for Mum!'

Here, you're probably talking to  your sibling, your brother or sister.

So we use the less formal 'talk'.

Here are 2 more examples for comparison:

'The presenter stopped speaking  while I found my seat.'

This could be at the conference—you  were late. How embarrassing!

Or—'My children stopped talking  when I walked into the room.'

This mum's children are planning a surprise party.

'Speak' focuses on the person who is saying  

the words. 'The presenter spoke about  the importance of good time management.'

'Talk' focuses on the speaker and at least  

one listener with the idea  that there's a conversation.

You often talk to someone to get  advice or simply to be friendly.

For example—'I'm going to Uganda next week.

I'd love to talk to you about your time  there.' I want to have a conversation about it

Or—'I know you've been struggling  recently. Do you want to talk about it?'

You might have noticed that I've been using  the preposition 'to' after 'speak' and 'talk'— 

'to speak to somebody', 'to talk to somebody'.

We can also use another preposition: 'with'.

'Speak with somebody.' 'Talk with somebody.'

'To' is more common in British English,  

and 'with' is more common in American  English, but you will hear both.

Use either. Okay, let's imagine  you're on the telephone now and  

you are calling a company. How would you  complete this dialog? 'Speak' or 'talk'?

'Hello. May I to _ Ahmed Osman,  please? Who's _? It's Carla Collins.'

So, we tend to use 'speak' on the  telephone, particularly in formal  

situations. So, in the first gap, we need  'speak'. 'May I speak to Ahmed Osman?'

In less formal situations, you could use  'talk'. For example—'Can I talk to Josh?'

In the second gap, we need 'speaking'.

'Who's speaking?' A possible alternative is  'Who's calling'? We do not say 'Who's talking'.

Okay, the last thing that is really important for  you to learn is which verb to use with languages.

How would you complete this sentence?  'Speak' or 'talk'? 'I _ English and Spanish.'

It's 'speak'. We 'speak a language'—'I  speak English and Spanish.'

'Do you speak Arabic?'

'Hiroshi speaks several languages.'

Okay, that is everything for today. I hope you  enjoyed it. I hope you learnt something. Now,  

it's time to download the PDF that goes with  this video, it has so much more information,  

and there are the exercises to complete too.  They are interactive; I think you will like them!

The link for that is in the description  box. I will see you soon for another lesson!