ش | ی | د | س | چ | پ | ج |
1 | 2 | |||||
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Say and tell have similar meanings. They both mean to communicate verbally with someone. But we often use them differently.
The simple way to think of say and tell is:
You say something | You tell someone something |
Ram said that he was tired. | Ram told Jane that he was tired. |
Anthony says you have a new job. | Anthony tells me you have a new job. |
Tara said: "I love you." | Tara told John that she loved him. |
But, of course, it is not always so easy. Here are a few rules to 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:
Direct speech
We can use say with direct speech. We use tell only with direct speech that is an instruction or information:
We can use say with direct questions, but we cannot use tell:
Reported speech
We can use say and tell to talk about reported information:
We cannot use say or tell to talk about reported questions. We must use ask (or a similar verb):