SAY vs TELL Difference and Meaning with Example English Sentences

66,447 views ・ 2021-11-11

Shaw English Online


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Hi, everyone. I’m Esther.
0
310
2379
00:02
In this video, I’m going to talk about the two similar and sometimes confusing English verbs
1
2689
6029
00:08
‘say’ and ‘tell’.
2
8718
2725
00:11
‘say’ and ‘tell’ have similar meanings
3
11443
2864
00:14
but they are used in different ways.
4
14307
3082
00:17
A lot of my students confuse these words,
5
17389
2754
00:20
so I hope to clear up any confusion.
6
20143
2631
00:22
Keep watching to know the difference between these two words.
7
22774
4079
00:30
Let’s start with ‘say’.
8
30000
1986
00:31
It is an irregular verb so the past tense form is ‘said’.
9
31986
5639
00:37
It means to speak, express something in words or to tell someone something.
10
37625
6360
00:43
Let’s look at some example sentences.
11
43985
3273
00:47
The first sentence says,
12
47258
1506
00:48
‘I’m sorry what did you say?’
13
48764
2913
00:51
Maybe I couldn't hear you but I want to know the words that you spoke
14
51677
4661
00:56
so I say, ‘What did you say?’
15
56338
3387
00:59
The next sentence says,
16
59725
1673
01:01
‘My mom said ‘hi’.’
17
61398
2317
01:03
I’m reporting the words that she spoke.
18
63715
2885
01:06
‘She said ‘hi’.’
19
66600
2226
01:08
Now, I will talk about ‘tell’.
20
68826
2563
01:11
It is also an irregular verb.
21
71389
2809
01:14
The past tense is ‘told’.
22
74198
3222
01:17
It means to say something to someone
23
77420
2815
01:20
especially when giving information or instructions.
24
80235
4514
01:24
Let’s look at some examples.
25
84749
2943
01:27
The first sentence says,
26
87692
1506
01:29
‘He told his mom that he was tired.’
27
89198
3275
01:32
He shared this information with his mom.
28
92473
3313
01:35
So we can use ‘told’.
29
95786
2030
01:37
‘He told his mom that he was tired.’
30
97816
3305
01:41
The next sentence says,
31
101121
1591
01:42
‘Tara told john that she loved him.’
32
102712
3022
01:45
Again, Tara told or gave information to John
33
105734
4540
01:50
that she loved him.
34
110274
2098
01:52
Now, let's do a checkup.
35
112372
2437
01:54
In this conversation, there are two sentences.
36
114809
3585
01:58
In one of the sentences, we use the verb ‘say’
37
118394
3472
02:01
and the other one we use ‘tell’.
38
121866
3173
02:05
Take a moment to think about where we should use ‘say’ and ‘tell’.
39
125039
6750
02:11
‘A’ says,
40
131789
1303
02:13
‘Did you _blank_ that you liked her?’
41
133092
3160
02:16
Remember, for ‘say’,
42
136252
2159
02:18
something comes after.
43
138411
1907
02:20
We ‘say’ something.
44
140318
2328
02:22
In this case, the something is that you liked her.
45
142646
3969
02:26
So ‘A’ should be
46
146615
1771
02:28
‘Did you say that you liked her?’
47
148386
3532
02:31
‘B’ says, ‘No I _blank_ her that I loved her.’
48
151918
4960
02:36
For the verb ‘tell’
49
156878
1869
02:38
someone comes after.
50
158747
1934
02:40
We tell someone.
51
160681
2052
02:42
In this case, ‘her’ comes after the blank,
52
162733
3246
02:45
so the answer is ‘tell’.
53
165979
2693
02:48
However, we need to use the past tense,
54
168672
3077
02:51
so ‘B’ says,
55
171749
1637
02:53
‘No, I told her that I loved her.’
56
173386
3657
02:57
So let's look at the conversation again.
57
177043
2721
02:59
A: Did you say that you liked her?
58
179764
3900
03:03
B: No, I told her that I loved her.
59
183664
4501
03:08
Great job.
60
188165
961
03:09
Now you know the difference between ‘say’ and ‘tell’.
61
189126
4112
03:13
It takes a little practice but I know you will master these words.
62
193238
4438
03:17
I will see you in the next video.
63
197676
3207
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7