Listen up – I’ve got something to say (tell you)

say OR tell?

The verbs say and tell have similar meanings. They both mean “to communicate verbally with someone”. But we often use them differently and I’ve seen a lot of English learners mix up when they should use one or the other.  Hopefully this short review will be of some help for them and for you.

The simple way to think of say and tell is:

• You say something
• You tell someone something

You say something	You tell someone something
Rita said that she was tired.	Rita told Janey that she was tired.
Arnold says you have a new car.	Arnold tells me you have a new car.
Sara said: “I love you.”	Sara told Jim that she loved him.

But, of course, it is not always so easy. The following rules should help you.

Personal object
We usually follow tell with a personal object (the person that we are speaking to). We usually use say without a personal object:

• She told me that she loved John.
• She said that she loved John.
• They told everybody that they had to leave.
• They said that they had to leave.

Say “to someone”
With say, we sometimes use “to someone”:

• He said to me that he was hungry.
• Sara said to Rita that she had done very well.
• Arnold said to her, “I hope you arrive soon.”
• “I’d like to sleep,” she said to him quietly.

Direct speech
We can use say with direct speech. We use tell only with direct speech that is an instruction or information:

• Alice said, “Hello Jack. How are you?”
• “That’s great,” he said.
• SHe told her: “Open the door quietly.”
• She told them, “I have never been to England.”

We can use say with direct questions, but we cannot use tell:

• She said: “Do you like me?”
• The investigator said to the suspect, “Where were you at 5pm?”

Reported speech
We can use say and tell to talk about reported information:

• He said that it wasn’t raining.
• She told them that she would call at 10am.

We cannot use say or tell to talk about reported questions. We must use ask (or a similar verb):

• He asked if she had ever been there.
• They asked what we wanted to eat.
• She asked where she lived.
• She asked if we wanted to go home.

Orders, advice
We use tell + object + infinitive for orders or advice:

• We told him to sit down.
• They told her not to wait.
• Tell Nancy to have a holiday and forget him.

Phrases
Here are a few fixed phrases with tell. We cannot use say with these phrases:

• tell (someone) a story
• tell (someone) a lie
• tell (someone) the truth
• tell the future (= to know what the future will bring)
• tell the time (= know how to read a clock)

Try some practice questions with this quiz on say and tell.

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