Hi guys. Before we start, I want you
to look at these three sentences and decide if any of them are correct. He said me
Frank was lazy. George told that he needed to study. She talks three languages. Actually, none of these are correct. These
should be: He told me Frank was lazy. George said that he needed to study. And: She speaks
three languages. If you're confused, don't worry because in this video we're going to look at how
to use the verbs say, tell, speak and talk correctly. I'm not going to cover every single possible
usage of these words because if I tried to do that, this video would probably be a couple of hours
long, but we will look at the most important points. As always, remember that you can also follow me
on social media, and if you'd like to subscribe to my free advanced English email lessons, you'll
find the link in the description. We're first going to look at say and tell. Both of these verbs are
about using words to express ideas and thoughts. If you look up the definitions of these words
in a dictionary, they might be slightly different. For example, you might read that for "say" the focus
is often on the words that are used, and with "tell" the focus is usually on the information,
but the basic idea is the same. However, from a grammatical perspective, they are used differently.
And by the way, both of these are irregular verbs. The past simple and past participle of "say" is
"said", and the past simple and past participle of "tell" is "told". The structures that are generally
used with these verbs are: to say something (to somebody), and to tell somebody (something).
The parts in parentheses are optional. Here are some basic examples. Frank said
something. If you don't know him yet, this is Frank. And if you want, you can add "to" plus a noun or an
object pronoun. Frank said something to the teacher. Frank said something to George. Remember, names
are a type of noun. Frank said something to him. You can't say: Frank said the teacher
something. Or: Frank said George something. Or: Frank said him something. You need the word
"to" and it goes after "something". Now let's look at "tell". Frank told George. This sentence is fine
by itself, because it's probably clear from the context what Frank said. If you want to use
a pronoun, this sentence becomes: Frank told him. From now on I'll mainly use pronouns in the
examples to make it easier. For example: me, him, her, etc. But remember that you can replace the
pronouns with nouns like "the teacher" or "George". If you want to add "something" to this sentence,
you need to say: Frank told him something. If you want to make questions out of these, you can say:
What did Frank say? What did Frank say to him? Or: What did Frank tell him? You can't say:
What did Frank say him? Or: What did frank tell? Those are incorrect. Let's now look at direct
speech. Direct speech is when you're quoting the exact words that somebody has said. We usually
use "say" for direct speech. Frank said, "I'm bored." If you want to include who the information is for,
you need to add "to" plus a noun or object pronoun. But here it goes immediately after
"said". Frank said to me, "I'm bored." You can't say: Frank said me, "I'm bored." You need the
word "to". Like I said, we usually use "say" for direct speech, but people sometimes use "tell" if they are
providing information or giving an instruction. This sentence with "tell" is: Frank told me, "I'm
bored." You can't say: Frank told, "I'm bored." Because "tell" needs to be followed by a noun or a pronoun.
In this sentence, Frank is giving me information. An example with an instruction is: The doctor told
Frank, "Take two tablets a day." But you can't say, for example: Frank told me, "Hello." Because hello is not
information or an instruction. It's just a greeting. For direct speech that is not information or an
instruction, we always use "say". Frank said, "Hello." And on a side note, for things like greetings,
farewells, apologies, or saying thank you, or yes or no, we often don't use direct speech. For
example: Frank said hello. She never said sorry. They left without saying thank you. Frank wanted to leave early, but I said
no. Let's now look at reported speech, which is sometimes called indirect speech.
For reported speech you can use say or tell, but again, you need to be aware of the different
grammar that is used. Frank said that he was bored. If you want to make it clear who the
information is for, again you need to add "to" plus a noun or object pronoun. Frank said to me that
he was bored. If you use "tell" the sentence is: Frank told me that he was bored. And by the way,
the "that" in these sentences is optional, which is why I put it in parentheses. We often use it in
formal writing, but when we speak, we don't usually use "that" in these types of sentences. Now when
it comes to giving advice or instructions, we use "tell" if the information is directed at a
specific person or specific people. For example: I told Frank to read a book. Frank told me to
go away. If it's negative, we place "not" before "to". They told us not to worry. If it's very clear
from the context who the information is for, or if the information is not directed
at a specific person, we use "say". I said to read a book. They said not to worry. The label says to take one
teaspoon after every meal. That's something that you might read on a medicine bottle, for example.
There are just a couple more things you need to know about say and tell. For words like lie, truth,
joke and story, we use "tell". Frank often tells lies. George told me the truth. Ethel likes to tell jokes. My colleague told her team a funny story. As
you can see in the second and fourth sentences, if you want to include a pronoun or a noun,
you need to place it immediately after "tell". But be careful. With words like something, thing, this, that... we use "say". She said
something, but I didn't hear all the words. Frank said a funny thing yesterday. Did they say that? It's now time to look at speak and talk. Luckily
these are much easier than say and tell, which is why this section will be a lot shorter. I'm sure
you know what these mean. Both of these mean to say words. And often we can use them
interchangeably, but there are some small differences. And by the way, "talk" is a regular
verb, so the past forms are both "talked", and "speak" is an irregular verb. The past simple is "spoke" and
the past participle is "spoken". The main difference between these two verbs is that "speak" is a little
bit more formal and sounds a little bit more serious than "talk". I said "a little bit" because even
in formal situations, people still sometimes use "talk" and in informal situations, people sometimes
still use "speak". I've read in some places that "speak" should be used in formal situations and
"talk" should be used in informal situations, but honestly, the rule is not that strict. It's just
that generally "speak" sounds a bit more serious. For example, if you're in a meeting at work with some
managers, you might say: I spoke with our suppliers last week. You could also say: I talked with
our suppliers last week. That's absolutely fine. You're not going to shock or offend anybody
if you use "talk". It's just that in that situation it's a little bit more common to use "speak".
Now if you saw a friend and had a conversation, you would probably use "talk". We talked for over an
hour. You could also say: We spoke for over an hour. That's fine too. It's just that the first
sentence is a bit more common in that situation. Another thing that sometimes confuses people
is whether we should use "to" or "with" after "speak" or "talk". Obviously you don't NEED to use "to" or "with".
It will depend on the sentence. In these sentences, for example, it's not necessary. There are also
sentences like: My colleague speaks very loudly. Or: Frank never stops talking. But if
you want to indicate the direction of the language and put a person or a group of
people after the verb, you need "to" or "with". Usually you can use them interchangeably. For example:
I talked to (or with) Frank about his tardiness. I talked to (or with) my colleagues for an hour. In
both of these sentences you could also use "speak". Here is the basic rule for "to" and "with". If you
have a conversation between people - if there's an exchange - you can use either "to" or "with".
If, however, you have a situation in which the talking is basically just going
in one direction, you should use "to". For example: Our managers talked
to us about the new rules. At the assembly the principal spoke to
the students about the graffiti. In these situations there probably isn't an exchange.
There's just a person or a group of people giving information, so we wouldn't use "with"
here. Just a couple more points before we finish. To talk about languages we use
"speak". For example: She speaks Chinese. We speak some Spanish. How many languages do you speak? The exception to that rule is if you're talking about
the language that people are using in a specific situation. Then you have a few options. For example: I couldn't
understand them because they were speaking Greek. Here you could also say: ... they were speaking
in Greek. Or: ... they were talking in Greek. But you can't say: They were talking Greek.
If you use "talk" for a language, you need "in". And remember: If we're talking about somebody's
ability to communicate in a language, like in these sentences here, we use
"speak". Now the final point for today. Some of us make noises when we sleep. And I don't
mean snoring or farting. Some of us say words. Sometimes what we say makes sense and sometimes it
doesn't, but in any case, here we use "talk". To talk in one's sleep. We don't say "to speak in one sleep".
When Frank drinks too much, he talks in his sleep. That's it, everybody. I hope you found this
useful. If you liked the video, don't forget to hit the thumbs up, and if you haven't
done so already, don't forget to hit that big red subscribe button so you don't
miss any new videos. See you next time!
