Name: Confusing English Verbs - SPEAK, SAY, TELL, TALK - What’s The Difference? English Grammar Lesson
Uploaded: 2020-03-16T19:54:49.000Z
Duration: 10 min 2 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Future simple

Hi this is Ceema, and today I'm gonna teach you something that relates to communication.

Present continuous

We're gonna talk about the words, “speak”, “talk”, “tell” and “say” which

To-infinitive

is very confusing for people because they don't know what to use when communicating,

but today I'm gonna help you understand the difference between these words. You can't

use these words all the time, for all sentences in the same way, so what is the difference?

Let's talk about the first word which happens to be, “talk”, so when do you use talk?

You will use ‘talk’ when you are engaging in a conversation and that conversation can

be a formal conversation or it can be an informal conversation, right? When I say formal conversation

it obviously means, conversations in the office, at your work obviously, but informal conversations

are conversations with your family your friends your loved ones. So let's see how to use ‘talk’

in an example, “the doctors were talking about the patient's condition.” Now I'm

using the word ‘talking’ because it's a conversation they're having, a conversation

they're all sitting together and talking with each other and in this case obviously it happens

to be, formal they are in an office environment they are in the hospital, okay? So that's

why we use ‘talk’ or I could also say something like, “talking with your spouse

about life issues is a great way to have meaningful conversation”. Now again when I'm saying,

‘talking with your spouse’, I mean it's a conversation, when you're talking to your

spouse, you are having a one-to-one conversation, you are discussing various issues like, what

are we do with the children, how do we, you know how do we take care of our families,

all those intimate issues are being discussed and therefore it is a conversation but in

this case that happens to be, an informal conversation and that's how we use ‘talk’

when we are relating it with conversations which could be formal or informal. And just

so that you know, I have ensured that there's a small snapshot of what we've learned on

this side of the screen, okay? So that's talk for you, a conversation which could be formal

or informal. Now let's talk about the next word which is, “say”, when is say used?

“Say” is used when you want to express three things, “thought”… thought means

what I think in my mind, maybe I haven't really said it, but it's a thought in my mind. What

an “opinion”, opinion means, what I feel, what I feel, it's just my opinion or a “suggestion”,

suggestion meaning I'm telling someone, I'm giving someone advice, okay? So let's see

how we can use each of them, the first is, “he said…” I'm using the words ‘say’

over here that “it might take me two months to lose 10 Kgs.” Now this was probably his

thought or his opinion okay, may be not an expert opinion but it was definitely something

he thought, something that he thought, I should really do, okay? So he said that it might

take me two months to lose 10 kgs, like I can't say he ‘talked’ that it might be,

I can't use the word ‘talk’ here, can I? Right? So you simply say, he said that

it might take me two months to lose weight. Or I could say something like, “my CA said

that I should file my tax returns ASAP”, ‘as soon as possible’ now again I use

the word ‘said’ why because now I am talking about an opinion or a suggestion you know

my CA is a guy who will help me save money on tax, right? So it is his opinion, it is

his suggestion that I file my tax returns immediately. Over here again I cannot say

that the CA ‘talked’ that I should file my tax returns, well that wouldn't make sense

right, so I again use the word ‘say’ to talk about thoughts or opinions and then we

have another expression, we have another sentence, another example sentence where I say, he said

that it's best if I visit my parents, now I'm again using the word ‘said’ and this

kind of seems like a suggestion to me because you know he's suggesting that why don't you

meet your parents, so I will use the word said because again that happens to be an expression

of a suggestion, okay? So let me help you understand all of this by again putting that

on this side of the screen is a snapshot of what we've just learned which is the use of

the words, ‘say’ where you are talking about thoughts, opinions and suggestions.

Okay we'll move on to the next word now which is, “tell”. Now, how do we use tell and

when do we use tell? We use it when we want to give instructions or information, when

you are giving instructions to people that you feel they should follow. Okay so, “you

must tell her to be careful with her investments”, ‘you must tell her’, now why do I say,

you must ‘tell’ her? Because you are giving information. Probably this information is

required right now, because the stock market is very, it's not doing great, so you have

to be very careful and therefore you want to “tell” her, right? Okay so that's how

you used ‘tell’. You can also use another example by saying, “did you tell her about

the new software update we received?” This is actually a question mark okay, so it's

a question, ‘did you tell her’, ‘did you tell her’ meaning did you inform her,

did you instruct her about the new software information, the software update that we received.

Now over here you possibly cannot say you must ‘say’ her, you know a lot of people

use new sentences like, ‘I said her…’ no, you told her to do something, you did

not say her, you just told her to do something you gave her instructions or information,

okay? So again I'm gonna have this snapshot of what we've just learned on this side of

the screen, so tell just to review is to use it when you're talking about instructions

and information. Okay now let's go to the next word which is “speak”, when do we

use speak? We use it to refer to the ability to speak a language. So language, any language,

English, Espanol… anything or conversations. Okay now if you notice in a sentence you can

say, “I can speak in English and Spanish quite well” okay now I cannot say I can,

I can say in English, that's wrong English right? Because a lot of people say, you know

what I can say in English very well, no, you can speak in English very well, okay? Or when

you're using it as far as conversations go, you can say, “we need to speak with our

team about using the new printer carefully”, why do we say ‘speak’ because here again

we are referring to conversations, which means we are gonna have a conversation with our

team about using the new printer properly or carefully because it's a new printer and

you want to make sure that you don't have a problem, right? When you're using it, so

you will use the word ‘speak’. Okay so that was all about ‘speak’, so let me

put all of this on this side of the screen, so that you get a better perspective. So we've

understood the difference between the four, right? But now there is one similarity between

two words, can you figure it out? Take your time, okay so let me have you understand the

similarity between two words out of these four words happens to be with, “talk”

and with “speak”. Now you could use both of these quite interchangeably so you could

say something like, “the doctors are talking about a patient” or “doctors are speaking

about a patient”, why, because we are referring to a conversation that we are having with

people, which could be formal or informal. But in the case of “say” or “tell”,

well they're quite different and the difference is very clear, right? So this is the lesson

that is gonna help you really understand how to use each of these words differently, because

they are different and you have to use them in the right way, okay? So I'll be back with

some more lessons but in the meantime keep talking, keep practicing and keep learning

the right way to use them. I'll be back with some more lessons, until then this is me saying

keep practicing.Hi this is Ceema, and today I'm gonna teach you something that relates

to communication. We're gonna talk about the words, “speak”, “talk”, “tell”

and “say” which is very confusing for people because they don't know what to use

when communicating, but today I'm gonna help you understand the difference between these

words. You can't use these words all the time, for all sentences in the same way, so what

is the difference? Let's talk about the first word which happens to be, “talk”, so when

do you use talk? You will use ‘talk’ when you are engaging in a conversation and that

conversation can be a formal conversation or it can be an informal conversation, right?

When I say formal conversation it obviously means, conversations in the office, at your

work obviously, but informal conversations are conversations with your family your friends

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Confusing English Verbs - SPEAK, SAY, TELL, TALK - What’s The Difference? English Grammar Lesson

perspective

figure

engage

properly