Confusing English Verbs: SAY | TELL | TALK | SPEAK

Hello, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish Do these verbs sometimes confuse you? They're so similar that it can be difficult to know which one is the right one to use. Don't worry! You're not alone! I get asked the difference between tell and say and talk and speak all the time by my students. So I've made this video to help you understand. Let's start with 'say' and 'tell'. Now, this is the verb form in the present tense but they're both irregular verbs so in the past tense the form changes. It becomes 'said' and 'told'. These verbs are slightly different in their definitions. 'Say' means to express something with words and 'tell' means to give information to a person and that's the most important difference between these two words. When you use 'tell' you must have a person following the verb. It could be a name or a pronoun but there must be a person following. So, to help you understand I want to use some examples. So, feel free to practice out loud with me while I'm saying these sentences. You'll get some extra speaking practice too, as well as a grammar lesson One of the most important differences about using these verbs is that 'tell' must have a person following. Now, what about speak and talk? Just like 'say' and 'tell', 'speak' is an irregular verb. So, in the past tense the form is 'spoke'. But 'talk' is a regular verb so all you need to do to change the verb to the past tense is add -ed. The pronunciation of that -ed is just a /t/ sound, added to the end of the verb: talked, talked, talked. Now, 'speak' and 'talk' are synonyms and most of the time you can use either one of these verbs interchangeably, which means it doesn't matter, you can choose either. There are a few slight differences in the way that they're used. 'Speak' tends to be a bit more formal. It also refers to more general topics than 'talk'. Usually when you use talk you might add it with the proposition 'about', talk about something so, it's a little more specific. 'Speak' you can use quite generally for example: 'Can I speak with you?' Now this is quite general we're not being specific about what we want to speak about. But it also sounds a bit more formal, it sounds important. 'Can I talk with you?' So, this is a little more casual a little informal. It doesn't sound as important. And if we add 'about' we can add some more detail Can we talk about your brother? So, let's talk about prepositions quickly. Which words can you use with these verbs? Most importantly, you can only use 'speak' when you're talking about languages. Though, you might hear people say 'They talk in French.' That's the most important thing to remember about these two verbs but remember that they're synonyms so you can usually use either of them. The difference is very slight (or small). They are interchangeable. Well, that's it! I hope that you enjoyed that lesson and if you did please subscribe to my channel just here, if you haven't already! And you can check out more of my English video lessons right there! You can also connect with me on Facebook at mmmEnglish and if your super keen to keep improving your English with me check out my online courses at mmmEnglish.com Looking forward to our next lesson. See you next time.

Channel: mmmEnglish

Views: 983,520

Keywords: English, Study, Learn, Lessons, Teach, ESL, Grammar, Vocabulary, Speaking, Listening, Emma, mmmEnglish, speak, student, study, confusing, verbs, say, tell, talk, emma, words, vocab, new

Id: IHcGSJlJeZk

Length: 6min 56sec (416 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 09 2017