Today let's talk about the difference
between four very important and very useful verbs:
talk, speak, say,
and tell. Let's look at a few examples.
Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?
What did you say?
I said can you please tell Mary that I'll be a
little late today?
I need to speak with her about something important.
Students ask me all the time: what is the
difference between "speak," "talk," "say," and "tell?"
Is it "speak with" or "speak to?"
Let's take a look and answer all of
these questions.
Let's start with "talk" and "speak."
"Talk" means to give information,
to communicate an idea, to express
something to someone.
"Speak" means the same thing. "Talk" and "speak"
are synonyms.
These two words have the same meaning.
I can say I need to talk to the teacher
or I need to speak to the teacher
both of these mean the same thing. This
means I need to communicate with the teacher.
"Talk" is a little more
commonly used than "speak." We use it a little
more often. It's a little more casual.
The past tense of "talk" is "talked."
Talked. Notice how it sounds like a "t" at the end.
Talked. Let me show you some examples so that
you can hear the pronunciation.
You can repeat after me and practice
your pronunciation at the same time as you're learning
vocabulary. I talked to my sister for an hour last night.
When I walked into the room, everyone stopped talking.
Were they talking about me?
My mother loves to talk.
She talks all the time.
"Speak" means the same as "talk."
"Speak" also means to communicate
information to someone.
"Speak" is an irregular verb. The past
tense of speak is "spoke," and the past participle or the
third form like we sometimes call it is "spoken."
So it's "speak," "spoke," "spoken."
Let's look at some examples with this word.
I need to speak with you. It's something important.
I spoke to the teacher about my problems,
and she helped me.
Everyone was speaking so quickly! I
couldn't understand them.
Have you spoken to your boss yet about
your vacation time?
Matilda speaks so quietly. It's hard to hear her.
In these examples we can use "talk" or "speak,"
and it doesn't change the meaning
because "talk" and "speak" mean the same thing.
There's one time when we need to use "speak"
and not "talk," and that's when we give the
name of a language.
We say for example: "She speaks English."
We don't say: "She talks English." Or
"I can't speak Chinese."
Both of the words "speak" and "talk"
are often followed by the prepositions "to,"
"with" or "about." We use "to" or "with" before a person.
For example:
I talked to my brother.
He is speaking with a friend on the phone.
It was great to speak with you.
I loved talking with your mom at the party.
We use the preposition "about" for the
topic of the conversation.
For example:
I talked with my brother about his job.
And then we talked about his plans for the weekend.
Can i talk with you after class?
I need to talk about the test.
And now let's look at our other two words: "say"
and "tell." "Say" simply means to give information.
This is a very very general word.
And the past tense of "say" is "said."
Notice the pronunciation: said.
Said.
I said that I was tired.
Can you say that again? I didn't hear you.
I want to invite Carlos to the party. Do
you think he'll say yes?
Diane said that she'd be late to the meeting.
"Tell" means the same as "say,"
but "tell" means to give information to
someone. That's the only difference.
With the verb "tell" we need to use a pronoun like
"tell him," "tell her," "tell you," "tell them."
Or we use the name of a person, for example:
"tell my mother,"
"tell Janet,"
"tell the class,"
something like this.
The past tense of
"tell" is "told.
Let's look at some examples.
Have you told your mom the news?
I told karen that I will be home late tonight.
Let me tell you something important.
The teacher told the class that the test would be easy.
If you want to use "say" in these sentences
instead of "tell," then you need to use the preposition "to."
Let me show you the difference.
For example:
Let me tell you something important.
Let me say something important to you.
The teacher told the class that the test would be easy.
The teacher said to the class that the test
would be easy.
So to review, we learned that "speak"
and "talk" are synonyms.
We probably use "talk" a little more, and we only use
"speak" with the names of languages.
After "speak" and "talk" we can use
"with," "to," or "about."
We learned that "say" and "tell"
are synonyms, and that after "tell" we use a pronoun
or the name of a person.
If we want to use a pronoun or the name of a person
with "say," we must use the preposition "to."
So thanks for watching
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