10 Ways to Talk About Speech in English

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account at English class 101.com hi everybody welcome back to Talk words

my name is Alisha and today we're gonna talk about 10 ways to report speech

let's go say the first word is say say as a verb say is a very neutral word you

can use to report someone's speech to explain something someone said in the

past so for example he said the barbecue was cancelled which is a simple neutral

report tell the next verb is tell tell is used when one person is giving

information to another to tell someone something they did not know before don't

say tell me your phone number that's weird but like can you tell me where the

station is can you tell me where to buy a hamburger can you tell me where to

pick up my new car like so giving someone information they don't know or

or on the other hand explaining something one way to another person so

don't tell me what I can't do is a very good lost reference if you've ever

watched lost so tell another example sentence my boss told me I was doing a

good job speak the next one is speak speak so we use speak when we're talking

about language ability like I speak English I speak Japanese we can use

speak in the past tense to report something but it usually sounds a little

more formal so like I spoke to my boss about or I spoke to my parents about or

I spoke to my boyfriend or girlfriend about bla bla bla that using speak

instead of talked makes it sound a little bit more formal so you can use

speak but it's going to sound polite in a sentence my colleagues spoke with me

about an upcoming project was like okay the next one the next two

actually are very very casual expressions so when you're speaking with

friends and you're kind of talking about a quick maybe somewhat emotional

conversation you will hear native speakers especially Americans perhaps

this is unique somewhat to Americans use the phrase was like I was like he was

like she was like this is a very casual way to report speech and you'll hear an

often very very quickly together so someone will say I was like what and

then she was like no and then I was like yeah that's the kind of pattern you'll

hear it in very very quick ways to report speech but the subject changes I

was like he was like she was like we were like this is a way to share what

happens quickly instead of I said he said she said which might sound a little

too formal we can use I was like he was like to do that instead so this is a

really fun one and if you can use this naturally I think that it'll really help

you sound more natural - so in a sentence and then he was like I love

that movie was all the next one is also a similar to was like we have the

expression was all so it was all don't worry about all all does not have the

meaning of the whole of something or a complete something instead was all this

set phrase is used to report speech usually this one is used when there's

some kind of emotional emotional aspect to your conversation or it's a little

dramatic or maybe a little exciting we use it the same way as was like in that

very very quick style of speaking and then he was like and I was all and then

she was like and I was all we used those together but I was all has a little more

emphasis I feel I tend to use it when my when I want to express a stronger

emotion and I was all no way or and I was all what so you can use it for those

very like surprised emotions or maybe angry emotions was like and was all are

both used and very cash will situations so in a sentence and I

was all oh my god me to talk the next word is talk so talk similar to say is a

fairly neutral verb when reporting speech you'll use it in a situation

where someone is giving new information to you but maybe it's a two-way

conversation so for example we talked about blah blah blah for a topic or my

boss talked to me about blah blah blah so maybe new information is being

exchanged but the conversation is two-way there are multiple participants

with tell it's like the nuances sort of one person is reporting information

giving information with talked it's there's an exchange happening there so

keep in mind when you use the word talk you will say either I talked to or I

talked with someone and then you'll usually have a topic so I talked to my

friend about blah blah blah I talked to my friend about my new apartment I

talked to my boss about arrays I talked to my boss know I talked to my dog about

what dogs knew so there's some kind of there's some kind of exchange happening

there you'll need to use to or with when you're referring to the person or entity

you're talking to and you'll use about to refer to the subject so you can use

this one yeah when you're when you want to discuss exchanges of information so

in a sentence she talked to me about my family mention let's go to the next one

the next one is mention mention is used when like something is just there's just

one small point in a conversation like just a little side note or maybe it's

not the focus of a conversation but just something someone says quickly or

there's just a little thing that you hear oh you mentioned something about

blah blah blah or you mentioned that a new project

it's it's maybe not the focus of the conversation but something that you

heard a little bit about that's that's when we use the verb mention we can also

use it in a statement like please mention any skills you have on a resume

so it's the nuance is sort of like like just a little bit of information is when

we use mention so in a sentence our manager mentioned upcoming changes at

the company to go on and on okay the next expression is to go on and

on so to go on and on means just to talk for a very long time so maybe you have a

co-worker or a friend or a family member that just talks and does not stop

talking we say to go on and on that's the expression we use so in a sentence

the speaker at the seminar was going on and on about the topic if you really

want to emphasize it you can say it was going on and on and on and on and on

that really emphasizes that the person continues to speak so if you know

somebody who does that a lot you can use this expression to talk about them

according to the next expression here is according to according to is used

actually in the news or like to officially report something so according

to sources or according to the police according to the government official

according to my teacher according to my mother these are like direct reports of

information and their direct reports of information from a specific source so

according to the newspaper my neighborhood has 50,000 amazing ramen

shops that's not true but if I want to instead of just saying my neighborhood

has 50,000 amazing ramen shops I'm giving a source for that so according to

my newspaper this is this is where I got the information so this is important to

use in news and newspapers and any kind of official documentation you will see

and hear according to in these cases in a sentence according to a witness at the

scene the suspect escaped report great so the next one is report

so reports similar to according to we use report in more official situations

so to officially share information like to report to the police to report to

your teacher to report to your boss sometimes it means to submit

documentation like to give someone a written report sometimes it's to share

information officially just just with your voice to report news or to report

an update so when you want to give and give official information we'll use the

verb report so in a sentence sources in the area report that the accident was

not serious thank goodness all right okay that's the end that is the end so

those are ten words and ten phrases that you can use to talk about talking to

talk about speech so I hope that these are useful for you and I hope that this

helps clear up a few things about the difference between like say and tell and

speak and so on but if you have any questions please let us know in the

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top words and we'll see you again soon bye