What is the difference between say, tell, speak and talk?

“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity.” ― Roy Bennett

Are you confused about the difference between say, tell, speak and talk? These four English verbs are similar but are all used slightly differently. Let’s look at them together to clarify how to use them.

They are actually 2 pairs of verbs:

Say v tell

Speak v talk

Let’s look first at the difference between say and tell:

The difference between say and tell

TO TELL:

To give information to someone about something in spoken or written form.

One important difference is the word order and with the verb ‘to tell’ it is

1. To tell somebody something
   – He told me about the exciting news
2. To tell something to somebody
   – He told the exciting news to his coworkers

There is normally a who involved so a person is an object in the sentence:
I told you, our parents told us, she told him…

TO SAY:

The meaning is the same as to tell in that we are giving information to somebody but a person can never be the object. It is always we say something TO somebody: 

• – I want to say something important to you.

It is often used in the construction: subject + said + that

• – He said that he was bored
• – I said that I’m hungry
• – She said that he was amazing.

Both ‘to say’ and ‘to tell’ can be used in direct and indirect speech and there is no real difference.

Direct speech: I said: ‘I’m hungry.’ / I told him: ‘I’m hungry.’

Indirect speech: I said that I was hungry/ I told him that I was hungry.

The difference between speak and talk

TO SPEAK:

This is also to give information but it is for one way communication. 

I need to speak to you urgently.

Also this is the verb used to talk about the languages we know and can express ourselves in:
I can speak 4 languages.

It can be used in direct speech (he spoke softly in my ear: ‘I love you.’) and indirect speech (he spoke softly in her ear that he loved her.)

TO TALK:

It is used to give information on a general topic and usually refers to two or more people sharing information with each other.

• – Let’s talk about it!

• – We talked about many things.

It cannot be used in direct or indirect speech.

SPEAK and TALK are interchangeable and have very similar meaning and the only real difference is that ‘to talk’ isn’t used in direct or indirect speech. 

We spoke about the meeting / We talked about the meeting.

If you’d like to find out about more verbs for speaking , check out my 2 part video on the different ways (in tone, volume and meaning) we speak in English.

 
 
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