| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about differences between reporting verbs. Let's get started. |
| The first verb I want to look at is the verb "say," say. So, when we use "say," we use it for neutral reports of speech. So, you can imagine if two people are talking, and we just want to communicate the thing that someone said or the thing that someone expressed, we can use "say" to do that. For example, "My boss said I did a great job." So, that's just a plain normal report of information. Or, as a question, "What did you say?" What did you say? So, this is the most basic way to report speech. For reference, in past tense, the word is "said." And, as a past participle verb, it is also "said." The forms are the same. |
| Let's compare this to the verb "tell," tell. So, different from say tell is used when one person shares most of the information in the conversation. So, it's not like two people are, you know, sharing information back and forth, but rather, one person shares a lot of information, and then the other person receives the information or just has a few small points to share. So, in past tense the verb is "told," and the past participle form is also "told." For example, "My friend told me about a new restaurant," or "Don't tell my parents I failed the test." So, you'll notice in both of these, we follow the verb "tell," or past tense "told," with the person receiving the information. So, "My friend told me about a new restaurant." I received the information, me. Here, "Don't tell my parents," about the fact that I failed the test. "Don't tell my parents I failed the test." So, this is the person receiving the information in this case. |
| Okay. Let's go on to the next pair. The next pair, "talk" and "speak." Let's look at "talk" first. We use "talk" when two people are sharing information, two plus -- two or more people are sharing information. There's a conversation happening. Not just one person sharing, but there's an actual conversation. So, in past tense, the verb is "talked," and as a past participle verb, it's also "talked." For example, "Let's talk to the teacher after class," or "I talked with my parents last weekend." |
| Then, "speak," speak. "Speak" is the same actually as "talk" for this case. So, again, it's two or more people sharing information in a conversation. But, "speak" tends to sound more formal than "talk." When we're just describing everyday conversations, we usually use "talk." If we want to sound more formal, we use "speak." For example, "We're going to speak to the manager about some problems." So, a work situation, a professional situation. Or, "I haven't spoken to him recently." If you're talking about a colleague or someone else in a professional situation. |
| So, if you're not sure, should I be more polite, should I be more casual? If it's a professional situation, you can use "speak." Generally, though, it's not rude to use "talk." You can choose which you prefer. But, "speak" does tend to sound a bit more formal. For reference, past tense is "spoke," spoke. As we saw, actually, I included this one here. Past participle form is "spoken," spoken. So, please be careful. "Spoke," past tense. "Spoken," past participle form. Also, about the verb "speak," we use it to express language ability. For example, "I don't speak Chinese," or "She speaks Korean." We cannot use "talk" in this way. We must use "speak." So, please be careful. |
| Final point about this pair. We can use prepositions "to" or "with." Either preposition is okay. I saw… or rather, I used "to" here. "Let's talk to the teacher after class," or "I talked with my parents last weekend." The difference between them is extremely small, extremely small. The difference is like, "Let's talk to the teacher after class," it's like we have something we want to share with the teacher, and maybe it feels more like we're going to give most of the information. When you use "with," it's a little more feeling like together, together. So, "I talked to someone," sounds more like direct, giving more information directly. And, "to talk with someone" or "to speak with someone," sounds like you're participating together. But, really, there's not a such a big difference in communication here. |
| Okay. Let's go to the last pair then, "hear" and "listen," hear and listen. We use these to report information, yes. To report things, information we received. So, let's look at how we use these differently. We use "hear" for information we receive with our ears, our ears. And also, we do sometimes use this for information we read as well. You read it on social media, and the newspaper, other news website, whatever. You can use "hear" to describe that. Past tense is "heard," and past participle is also "heard." For example, "I heard you got a promotion," or "Did you hear the news?" So, we used this just to mean received information. I received this information. "I heard you got a promotion," so maybe, I actually used my ear to get the information, or maybe I read it in an email. Either way, I received this information somehow. I just received it, that's all I want to express. So, usually, with our ears. If you want to be specific about written information, you can say, "I read you got a promotion," if you want to be specific. Or, "I saw in an email you got a promotion." You can use that, too. But, most naturally, we usually use "heard," "I heard you got a promotion." |
| Let's compare this then to "listen," listen. So, again, we use "listen" for information with our ears, yes. But, the key difference between "listen" and "hear" is that we use "listen" when we're focusing our attention on something we're receiving with our ears. So, here, you'll notice like there's no face here, we're just receiving the information. With this person, I drew kind of a focused face, because we're trying to listen. Like, we're trying to focus our attention on something. With "hear," it's like the information just enters our ears. So, like, "I can hear someone in the other room," or "I heard a strange noise over there." So, that just means I got the information. "Listen" is like I'm focusing on the information. |
| For example, "Let's listen to this song," or "Is someone listening to our conversation?" So, again, the feeling with "listen" is there's focus, there's attention there. With "hear," we don't have that. For reference, past tense form of "listen" is "listened," and past participle form is also "listened." Please keep in mind, when we use "listen," we use the preposition "to." "Listen to a song," "listen to a conversation," "listen to your teacher," and so on. So, please use the preposition "to." We do not use this preposition "with" here. |
| So, this is a very quick introduction, but a quick comparison, a quick introduction to the differences between all of these reporting-related verbs. So, I hope that it was helpful for you. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye. |
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