Tell – Say – Speak — Told – Said – Spoke

When to use: Tell – Say – Speak — Told – Said – Spoke.

Tell, say and speak are all irregular verbs.

Present	Simple Past	Past Participle
tell	told	told
say	said	said
speak	spoke	spoken

Tell – Told

Usually we add the person that we or someone else is talking to.

To tell something to someone.

Study these examples:

• Tell me what happened.
• Did you tell her what is going on?
• You should tell him to study more.
• Don’t worry, I won’t tell her about that.
• He told me that he would be late.
• Please, tell me what’s happened!
• I told him that his new car is great.
• Let me tell you something!

We also use tell without an indirect object with words like: the truth, a lie, a joke, a story.

• You should always tell the truth.
• You should never tell a lie.
• He is good at telling jokes.
• She can tell lots of stories.

Say – Said

Usually we do not add the person that we or they are talking to.

Study these examples:

• Helena said she is going to the party.
• She said she was surprised by the latest news.
• Can you repeat what you just have said, please?
• He said that he is leaving early today.
• I don’t know why she said that!
• Like I said yesterday, we are not going to the party!

We also use say with to:

• He said to me: I’m your father. We’ve never met before.

Speak – Spoke – Spoken

We use speak when we are going to talk with someone or to say that someone speaks a language.

Study these examples:

• John speaks English.
• Mary speaks Spanish and Mark speaks German.
• Do you speak English?
• How many languages do you speak?
• Mark spoke with his boss about the new project.
• He will speak with his employees about that.
• He spoke for two hours!

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