How to use TALK TELL SAY SPEAK correctly in English

85,375 views ・ 2023-08-29

mmmEnglish


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

00:00
Hey there! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.
0
0
4107
00:04
Say, speak,
1
4321
1713
00:06
talk,
2
6420
1138
00:07
tell.
3
7792
1021
00:09
Do you know how to use these words correctly in English?
4
9047
3609
00:12
What's the difference between talk and tell?
5
12896
3571
00:16
These are simple everyday verbs
6
16720
3078
00:19
but they are often confused by English learners.
7
19798
3196
00:22
They're so similar that sometimes it's difficult to choose
8
22994
3772
00:26
the correct one.
9
26766
1150
00:27
They're all similar but they are not the same
10
27916
2972
00:30
and there are some important rules that you need
11
30920
2404
00:33
to know to make sure you're speaking English
12
33324
3048
00:36
clearly and accurately.
13
36372
2119
00:38
Can you tell your name?
14
38939
1433
00:42
He said me to meet here.
15
42720
1836
00:46
If you like the sound of this lesson
16
46797
1610
00:48
and you're excited to learn the difference between talk and tell
17
48407
3984
00:52
make sure you let me know.
18
52391
2092
00:54
Give this lesson a like, hit the subscribe button down there
19
54483
3730
00:58
so you never miss a mmmEnglish lesson.
20
58213
3863
01:06
Let's start with the verbs say and tell.
21
66900
3835
01:11
These are both reporting verbs and they're used
22
71047
3553
01:14
to report ideas or information that were expressed
23
74600
4099
01:18
by someone else when they were speaking.
24
78699
2997
01:21
They're also both irregular verbs
25
81696
2900
01:24
so in the present tense we have say and tell
26
84596
3616
01:28
but in the past tense they become
27
88795
2400
01:33
said and told. That's right.
28
93060
2768
01:35
You could be forgiven for thinking these words are synonyms
29
95828
3569
01:39
but actually they are slightly different in their definitions.
30
99397
4600
01:44
Say means to express something using words.
31
104263
4548
01:49
Tell means to give information or instructions to a person
32
109200
5581
01:55
and that is the most important difference.
33
115000
3285
01:58
When you use the verb tell it must always be followed
34
118285
4312
02:02
by a personal object,
35
122597
2072
02:04
the person who is receiving the information.
36
124669
2993
02:07
So it could be their name or a personal pronoun.
37
127662
3652
02:11
Whatever you choose it must be followed by a person.
38
131314
3657
02:14
Let's look at some examples together and I want you to repeat
39
134971
3560
02:18
them out loud with me.
40
138531
1828
02:20
Where are they going?
41
140710
1188
02:22
She didn't say.
42
142794
1370
02:24
Where are they going?
43
144768
1226
02:27
She didn't tell me.
44
147480
1346
02:30
What did he say?
45
150000
1408
02:31
What did he tell you?
46
151953
1520
02:34
Say hi to Paul for me!
47
154681
1823
02:36
Tell Paul I said hi!
48
156894
1896
02:40
So I'm going to keep giving you some examples now
49
160240
2645
02:42
but you'll have to listen carefully because there are
50
162885
3112
02:45
two sentences that are incorrect
51
165997
3415
02:49
so I want you to listen out for them
52
169412
1945
02:51
and tell me down in the comments which ones are wrong.
53
171688
4156
02:56
I want to say something about our teacher.
54
176234
2601
03:00
I want to tell you something about our teacher.
55
180000
2725
03:03
Did he say how it happened?
56
183777
1801
03:07
Did he tell how it happened?
57
187136
1634
03:10
I said their new house was beautiful.
58
190440
2395
03:14
I told them their new house was beautiful.
59
194043
2845
03:18
She said me I would meet him on Sunday.
60
198016
2624
03:22
She told me I would meet him on Sunday.
61
202276
2337
03:25
The most important difference between these two verbs
62
205620
3755
03:29
is that tell must have a person following it.
63
209375
4124
03:33
It must have a personal pronoun or a name
64
213499
3001
03:36
and say needs to use the preposition to
65
216753
4782
03:41
if we want to include who the words were spoken to.
66
221535
4096
03:45
So this one is wrong.
67
225631
2498
03:48
We need a personal object.
68
228129
2804
03:51
Who did he tell the information to?
69
231186
2561
03:54
You?
70
234468
961
03:55
Them?
71
235429
835
03:57
Us?
72
237004
727
03:58
Sarah?
73
238179
684
03:59
This information is missing from our sentence
74
239603
3090
04:02
so we need to say who.
75
242693
1869
04:04
And this one was wrong as well.
76
244562
2389
04:07
If we need to explain who heard the words
77
247126
3220
04:10
we need to include the preposition to.
78
250346
3050
04:13
She said to me I would meet him on Sunday.
79
253591
4376
04:18
But often this information is not important or it's
80
258298
4374
04:22
not necessary.
81
262672
1457
04:24
She said I would meet him on Sunday.
82
264499
2785
04:27
This is perfectly okay as well.
83
267900
2385
04:30
Meet English-speaking friends with Hey Lady!
84
270908
2803
04:33
an online community connecting women around the world
85
273711
3455
04:37
through English.
86
277166
912
04:38
We make it easy for you to meet fantastic English
87
278160
3082
04:41
speaking partners from different countries,
88
281242
2675
04:43
to practise speaking English with regularly
89
283917
2804
04:46
in the warmth and the safety of a women-only environment.
90
286877
3979
04:51
To learn more about what we do and get a Hey Lady!
91
291300
2792
04:54
conversation pack for free
92
294092
2032
04:56
just click the link down in the description below.
93
296260
2682
04:58
Okay so what about the verbs speak and talk?
94
298942
4720
05:03
Just like
95
303662
1125
05:05
say and tell, the verb speak
96
305000
3159
05:08
is irregular.
97
308334
1501
05:10
So in the past tense, we use spoke
98
310088
3895
05:13
and spoken is the past participle
99
313983
3837
05:17
but talk is just a regular verb
100
317820
3067
05:20
so in the past tense we need to add -ed.
101
320887
3252
05:24
Talked.
102
324645
941
05:25
And to pronounce the past tense form of a regular verb
103
325586
4590
05:30
here we have talk,
104
330332
2163
05:32
we need to add the
105
332573
1441
05:34
sound to the end.
106
334852
1739
05:38
Talked.
107
338750
2859
05:42
Speak and talk are synonyms.
108
342310
2777
05:45
Most of the time you can choose either of these verbs
109
345087
3318
05:48
and use it in your sentence.
110
348405
1763
05:50
But there are a few small differences
111
350168
3422
05:53
that you need to be aware of.
112
353590
1805
05:55
Speak sounds more formal than talk
113
355395
2731
05:58
so it's often used if the speaker and the listener
114
358438
3326
06:01
are not known very well to each other
115
361978
2707
06:04
and it's also more common when you're at work
116
364821
2959
06:07
so in a professional context,
117
367780
1967
06:10
maybe when you're talking on the phone or you're talking
118
370000
2595
06:12
with your boss, speak is the better, more formal verb to use.
119
372595
4433
06:17
Speak also makes it sound more serious or more important
120
377321
3687
06:21
as well so for example,
121
381320
2388
06:24
"Can I speak to you?"
122
384120
1814
06:26
sounds more important or more serious than
123
386518
3411
06:29
"Can I talk to you?"
124
389929
1210
06:31
There is also a little subtle difference
125
391139
3628
06:34
because speak focuses on the person
126
394767
3632
06:38
who is producing the words
127
398399
2108
06:40
whereas talk
128
400740
1868
06:42
focuses on both the speaker and at least one listener
129
402783
4229
06:47
so immediately the feeling suggests
130
407109
3185
06:50
that there is a conversation going on
131
410294
2667
06:53
so it sounds a little strange to say:
132
413721
2960
06:57
They can speak and get to know each other.
133
417032
2463
07:00
Firstly because it sounds quite formal
134
420840
3363
07:04
and secondly because this verb really focuses on the speaker
135
424320
5128
07:09
and not on the conversation so instead of imagining
136
429584
4157
07:13
these two people having a conversation together
137
433741
3437
07:17
we imagine them speaking at each other separately.
138
437295
4961
07:22
It's a subtle, subtle difference but an important one
139
442334
3479
07:25
when you think about that context.
140
445813
2520
07:28
And most importantly you can only use speak
141
448333
3750
07:32
when you're talking about languages.
142
452083
2355
07:34
"They speak Arabic"
143
454438
1893
07:36
not
144
456818
592
07:37
"They talk Arabic"
145
457780
1559
07:39
Tell me down in the comments
146
459768
1765
07:41
how many languages do you speak?
147
461669
2503
07:44
Notice that I used speak, I would never say:
148
464406
3761
07:48
How many languages do you talk?
149
468167
2067
07:50
because you can't use talk
150
470234
1932
07:52
when you're talking about languages.
151
472166
2274
07:54
So what about the difference between talk and tell?
152
474840
3874
07:58
The important difference to remember is that talk
153
478714
3532
08:02
can't be used to report indirect speech.
154
482363
4113
08:06
It's not possible.
155
486476
1433
08:08
He told me he would be late.
156
488202
2148
08:11
He talked to me he would be late.
157
491460
2520
08:17
So now you've learned the difference between these words,
158
497005
3592
08:20
let's test your knowledge and see if you can get
159
500597
3416
08:24
all ten questions in this quiz right.
160
504013
3218
08:27
Okay, you're gonna see the sentence up on screen,
161
507445
3333
08:31
you'll need to choose the best verb for that sentence.
162
511070
3848
08:41
Did he say how it happened?
163
521794
1920
08:52
I said they would lose the match, didn't I?
164
532494
2520
09:00
I want to tell you something about our teacher.
165
540834
2820
09:11
Jim spoke to his boss about a promotion.
166
551016
2940
09:20
She said we could go on Sunday.
167
560755
2133
09:29
I told you they couldn't afford it.
168
569903
2220
09:38
Did Greg tell you how it happened?
169
578737
2133
09:47
She told me about it on Sunday.
170
587616
2384
09:56
Can I say something to you?
171
596574
1680
10:06
Can you tell him something from me?
172
606373
1680
10:10
Nice work! I hope that you enjoyed this lesson today.
173
610233
3990
10:14
If you did please make sure you give it a like,
174
614223
2604
10:16
subscribe to my channel and make sure you check out
175
616827
3603
10:20
some of my other mmmEnglish lessons,
176
620430
2843
10:23
they'll be right over here in a moment.
177
623273
2065
10:25
But first your homework.
178
625533
2199
10:27
I want you to practise writing four separate sentences
179
627732
4244
10:31
using say, tell, talk and speak.
180
631976
4257
10:36
Drop those four sentences down into the comments
181
636389
2789
10:39
so that I can check your answers for you
182
639178
2230
10:41
and make any corrections if you need them.
183
641408
3058
10:44
Once you've done that come join me in this lesson
184
644466
2584
10:47
right over here.
185
647050
990
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