Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson,
you'll learn the difference between two very commonly confused words, and they are "say"
and "tell". Now, these words are confused because the meaning is almost the same. The
meaning is basically to give information, but the grammar of how we use these words
is very different. So, let's understand what the difference is. It's really quite simple,
and I do believe that after you watch this lesson, in case you're making this mistake,
you won't make it anymore. Okay? So, let's see what it - how it works. Alright. So, when we use the word "say", we
should follow it with "say something". Okay? As to someone. But for now, let's not worry
about that. When we use the word "tell", we should follow it with "tell someone something".
So, if we really compare these two, we say "say something to someone" or "tell someone
something". Okay? Grammatically, if you're interested in the details, it's basically
"say" plus a direct object, plus an indirect object, and "tell" plus an indirect object,
and then a direct object. But those are just grammatical words, okay? If you don't live
in that world and you just want to understand in terms of real examples, let's look at some
examples and I think you'll understand right away. So, let's take this sentence. Maria said she was
leaving. Okay? Maria said something. Something is she was leaving. Maria told me she was
leaving. So, now we have Maria told someone, that's me, something, she was leaving. So,
the mistake that's most often made is that students say "told something". So, they might
say something like "Maria told she was leaving". That's the mistake. And that's the mistake
you want to avoid. If you use the word "tell" or "told" in the past, then you have to say
"who", "told who". Okay? And then what? Not like this one. Alright? So, let's look at another example from the
academic world. Professor Brown said the test was cancelled. Professor Brown said something.
Something, the test was cancelled. But Professor Brown told us the test was cancelled. Now,
told someone, us, something, the test was cancelled. Alright? So, said the test was
cancelled or told us the test was cancelled. That's the difference,
but it's a key difference. Alright? Next, let's look at the world of business.
Another example. The manager said to arrive at 8 o'clock. Said something. But the manager
told them to arrive at 8 o'clock. Told someone something. That's basically it, alright? That's
the main difference. That if you say "say", then just say "say something".
Tell someone something. Now, these are some examples. In the next
stage, I'm going to show you how you can use these words when you're actually quoting what
someone said. So, let's have a look at that. Okay. So now, let's look at what happens when
we are including a direct quotation of what someone said in our sentence. So, the first
one. He said I love you. But he told me he loved me. Okay? So, we have the same principle.
Say + something. Tell someone something. Okay? You see that it works the same way, even when
we have the quotation. Let's take another example. The teacher said no cheating. Of
course. The teacher told them not to cheat. Same principle. Say + something.
Tell someone something. Okay? The next example. The union said we're going
to strike. The union told the management they were going to strike. The union means the
labour union, okay? So, we're going to strike also means we're not going to work, okay?
They want more wages, higher wages, better working conditions, and so on. So, what was
the principle here? The union said something or the union told someone something. Okay?
So, as soon as you get that in your mind, that you say something or tell someone something,
then you have understood how to use these two words. Okay? Alright. So now, let's just
do one last quiz to make sure that you've really got it.
Okay? Let's do that. Okay. So now, let's check these seven sentences.
Now, some of these are right and some of these are wrong, so you help me decide which ones
are which. Alright? And remember the rules that we learned, you say something or you
tell someone something. So, keep that in mind as you're checking
these sentences. Number one. Maria told the flight was delayed.
Is that right or wrong? If you need to pause the video, you can do that. If not, just stay
along with me. So, this one is actually wrong. Why? Because you tell someone something. And
here, we have Maria told, and then we don't have someone. So, you can correct the sentence
in two ways. Maria told us the flight was delayed, or Maria said the
flight was delayed. Okay? Alright. Number two. John said the hotel was full.
Is that right or wrong? Well, that one is correct, because John said something.
Said the hotel was full. That one is fine. Number three. Linda said get well soon. Right
or wrong? Linda said something. So, this one is also correct. Good. Number four. Jack told to put on the TV. Is
that right or wrong? So, told, it should be tell someone something, but here it was just
Jack told, but where's the someone? The someone is missing, right? So, it could be Jack told
me, Jack told us, Jack told them, but you need someone, okay? So, you could correct
this one like that. For example, Jack told me to put on the TV, but the way it is -
the way it was before, it was incorrect. Number five. We told room service to bring
us some champagne. Is that right or wrong? So, that one is actually correct because told
someone. Who's the someone here? Room service. That's okay. That's a department, but it's
still someone, okay? Told someone something, so that one was fine. Number six. She told I love ice cream. Is
that right or wrong? Well, that one is wrong because told someone something, right? Where's
the someone? So, either you can say she told me I love ice cream, or you could change it
in another way, and you could say she said I love ice cream. Because now, say something,
and this is what - the something that she said, okay? She said I love ice cream, or
she told us she loved ice cream, or something like that, okay? And the last one, the client told we had done
a good job. Is that right or wrong? What do you think? By now, I hope you're seeing some
patterns, I hope your ear is helping you to know the answer, the right answer. So, that
one is also incorrect because it should be tell someone something, right? So, it should
be the client told us we had done a good job. Or, the client said we had done a good job,
okay? So, I hope this lesson has helped you to understand the difference between say and
tell, but of course, to make sure that you've mastered it, please go to our website at www.engvid.com.
There, you can do a quiz on this to make sure that you really understood it well, and don't
forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can continue to get new lessons to
help you improve your English a little bit every day. Thanks very much for
watching. Bye for now.
