SAY & TELL - Reported Speech

Hey guys, I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "say" and "tell"

in reported speech. Now today, we are going to quickly address a very, very common mistake

that many new English speakers make with reported speech. So on the board, I have... Can you

guys see me still if I go here? Is that okay? Yeah, a little bit more? Okay.

So I have four examples. I have, "He said me that it was cold." "He told me that it

was cold." "The guy on the radio told that." Or, "The guy on the radio said that." And

you can put whatever he said or told in that situation. Two of these sentences are correct.

Two of these sentences are incorrect. Can you tell me which ones? If we look at the

first one, "He said me that it was cold." If you think this is correct, unfortunately,

you are making a grammar mistake that is very common. Don't feel bad because you are here

to correct it right now. Now, this reported speech mistake, "He said me." "She said me."

"My mom said me." "My dad said me." Stop right now, okay? Your mom, your dad, your friend,

they didn't say you. They didn't say you, okay? What they did is they told you something.

So never, ever, ever, ever, ever say, "He/She said me." If you want to say "said" in reported

speech, you have to use, "They said to me," okay? So you can say, "He said to me that

it was cold." That's okay. "He told me that it was cold." This is definitely correct,

okay? So if you want to use "say," use, "He said," "She said," whatever, "They said to

me." "He told me that it was cold." Okay, next example, we have, "The guy on the radio

told that." "The guy on the radio said that." Hmm, which one do you think is correct? First

one? If you think it's the first one, say, "It's the first one, Alex." Okay, if you think

it's the second one, say, "It's the second one, Alex." Okay, those of you who said, "It's

the first one, Alex," "The guy on the radio told that," don't get a cookie, unfortunately.

This is incorrect. "The guy on the radio said that." This is correct. Why? All right, the

fundamental difference, the basic difference between "told" and "said," or "say" and "tell,"

normally you're reporting in the past, right? So, "He said to me," "He told me," is this.

If you use "say," this is information from any source, okay? For anyone. So, somebody

on the radio, somebody on the TV. If you watch a movie and a character opens their mouth

and words come from their mouth, they say something. They don't tell you something,

they just say it because they are speaking to other characters in the movie. If a character

looks at the screen and looks at you and tells you about the story, then they tell you something.

But if they just open their mouth and you hear it, they just say it, okay? So, to say

something is to receive information from any source, just to hear spoken language, okay?

So, someone says something. If someone tells you something, this information is directed

towards you. It's information that is directly for you. So, again, if your mom or dad says,

okay, if they say, "Mark," Mark is a popular name, "Mark, go to the grocery store and buy

some bananas." And then you talk to me later and you can say, "My mom told me to go to

the grocery store and buy some bananas." Because your mom gave you the information directly,

okay? So, if you are reporting, use "told." If someone tells you something directly, if

someone speaks to you directly, it's much more common to say, "He told me," "She told

me." Now, again, the TV, the radio, they don't tell you things unless you're listening to

a news report and I guess you could say, "The guy told..." No, you can't. You really can't,

right? He said. This is information that he produced, but it wasn't, you know, it's directly

to the people listening, but it's just something that comes from their mouth.

So, the main point of this is, guys, please, please, please stop saying, "He said me,"

"She said me," "He told me," okay? "She told me," or "He said to me," "She said to me."

To test your understanding of this grammar point and to make sure you never make this

mistake again, check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. Good luck, guys.