Talon can meet us here can you say your
name again we talk on the phone every
week speak quietly library hello I’m
Emma from English 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 us 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 words 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 he
told me to do it he told me to do it 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
where are they going
she didn’t say where are they going
she didn’t tell me she didn’t give me
the information What did he say what did
he tell you what information did he give
you say hi to Paul for me tell Paul I
said hi I want to say something about
our teacher I want to tell you something
about our teacher I said that their new
house is beautiful I told them that
their new house was beautiful did he say
how it happened
did he tell you how it happened I said
that I’ve made him on Sunday I told him
that I’d made him on Sunday 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 10 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 eb the
pronunciation of that eb is just a t
sound added to the end of the verb top
top talk now speak and talk are synonyms
and most of the time you can use either
one of these words 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 preposition 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 you can talk to
someone you can speak to someone you can
talk with someone or you can speak with
someone or you can speak about something
or you can talk about something or
someone most importantly you can only
use speak when you’re talking about
languages they speak French not they
talk French but you might hear people
say they talk in French how many
languages do you speak
it’s not how many languages do you talk
I speak three languages not I talk three
languages 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 I
spoke with my manager yesterday I talked
with my manager yesterday 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 English and if
you’re super keen to keep improving your
English with me check out my online
courses at English comm looking forward
to our next lesson see you next time
name again we talk on the phone every
week speak quietly library hello I’m
Emma from English 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 us 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 words 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 he
told me to do it he told me to do it 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
where are they going
she didn’t say where are they going
she didn’t tell me she didn’t give me
the information What did he say what did
he tell you what information did he give
you say hi to Paul for me tell Paul I
said hi I want to say something about
our teacher I want to tell you something
about our teacher I said that their new
house is beautiful I told them that
their new house was beautiful did he say
how it happened
did he tell you how it happened I said
that I’ve made him on Sunday I told him
that I’d made him on Sunday 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 10 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 eb the
pronunciation of that eb is just a t
sound added to the end of the verb top
top talk now speak and talk are synonyms
and most of the time you can use either
one of these words 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 preposition 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 you can talk to
someone you can speak to someone you can
talk with someone or you can speak with
someone or you can speak about something
or you can talk about something or
someone most importantly you can only
use speak when you’re talking about
languages they speak French not they
talk French but you might hear people
say they talk in French how many
languages do you speak
it’s not how many languages do you talk
I speak three languages not I talk three
languages 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 I
spoke with my manager yesterday I talked
with my manager yesterday 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 English and if
you’re super keen to keep improving your
English with me check out my online
courses at English comm looking forward
to our next lesson see you next time
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