TALK, SPEAK, TELL - What's the difference?

Hello. Welcome to EngVid. I'm a clown. I'm connected to this clown. My name is Ronnie

and to celebrate the 50th lesson, the lovely and talented Rebecca has bought me a cupcake.

Oh, I love cupcakes. It has a clown on it. I don't know if I can eat the clown or not.

We shall see. Today's lesson, the clown is going to speak and talk to you. No, the clown

isn't going to talk. I'm going to tell you about this next lesson. Save that cupcake

for later.

Today, by special request, Ricardo, and excuse me with the pronunciation of this one, Gertrude

Jean, or Gertology, I don't know, you have beautifully typed in and asked me questions

about this conundrum you have in English. The difference between talk, speak, and tell.

Luckily, talk and speak can be used 100% interchangeably. Well, 99% interchangeably. Talk and speak have

exactly the same meaning in English. It doesn't matter. You can say, "I will talk to you"

or "I will speak to you." It doesn't matter. The only one time where we make a difference

between talk and speak is if we talk about a language. We have to say "speak" if we're

talking about a language or if we're speaking about a language.

So for example, you can say, "I speak English." You can also say, "I speak German." Whatever

language you can speak, you say, "I speak English." We do not say, "I talk English.

I talk Spanish." It's wrong. So there's only one example where these two are different

when we talk about them. For languages, only speak. Also, obviously, the words are different.

Talk in the past tense is "talked." What's special about this word as well is that with

the -ed ending, because this is unvoiced, which means when you say "k," it does not

vibrate here. We actually pronounce it like a "t." So this word in the past is spelt "talked."

So if I put this marker that doesn't work here, it'll sound like "talked." The past

participle of the word "talk" is the same, and the same pronunciation, "talked." The

simple past of the word "speak" is "spoke." In English, 100% of the time when you have

a single "e" in English at the end of the word, it is silent. So we have "speak," "spoke,"

and the past participle is "spoken."

On to the next one. I had someone -- I think it was Ricardo -- ask me, "What's the difference

between 'talk,''speak,' and 'tell'?" There is a difference. As I've told you, "talk"

and "speak" are the same with the exception of a language. "Tell," we only use to give

someone information. Your mother will tell you, "Don't go out of the house without cleaning

your ears." "Thanks, Mom." Or, "I told you, bring your jacket. It's going to rain." So

"tell" is giving someone information. Someone will tell you where to go, or someone will

tell you how to get somewhere. The past of "tell" is an irregular verb, and it is "told."

So "I told her to go left." The past participle of "tell" is the same as "told."

So just to recap, so you remember, "tell" or "told" is always to give someone info or

information. "Speak" we use when we talk about languages, and "talk" and "speak" have the

same meaning in English conversation. I hope that helped you. I hope you can talk to people

in English. I hope this helps you speak English, and I hope you tell people about www.engvid.com,

the website. Take care.