Say or tell: which verb should you use?
Say and tell both involve communicating words, but they take different sentence patterns. Learning those patterns is more reliable than trying to translate each verb directly.
Say focuses on the words
Use say before the message: “She said hello” and “He said that he was tired.” If you include the listener, add to: “She said hello to me.” We do not usually say “She said me the answer.”
Tell usually needs a person
Use tell directly before the listener: “She told me the answer” and “Tell us what happened.” It also appears in fixed combinations such as tell the truth, tell a story, tell a joke and tell the difference.
Nederlandse uitleg
Onthoud: say + iets; tell + iemand. Je kunt iets say to someone, maar je tell someone something.
Try it yourself
Correct the sentence “He told that the lesson was cancelled.” Either write “He said that the lesson was cancelled” or name the listener: “He told us that…”
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Source: Cambridge Grammar. Featured photograph by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash.