Say and tell
Hi!
Help me please with these two sentences.
A) I will never _ where I have hidden your present.
B) They _ not to wait for a long time.
My choice was:
A) tell
B) told
The correct answer was "say" and "said" respectively.
WHY?
(I follow such structures: he said (that) or he said to me, and he told me (that).
Thank you in advance!
Top answer
The usage is as follows: Tell somebody something (with indirect object) : 'Jim told me that you've been offered a new job . ' --------------------- ????? A) tell On second thought, that's fine since it works like telling the truth; I don't understand why there is a choice between 'tell' and 'say'.
- The usage is as follows: Tell somebody something (with indirect object) : 'Jim told me that you've been offered a new job .
- ' --------------------- ?????
- A) tell On second thought, that's fine since it works like telling the truth; I don't understand why there is a choice between 'tell' and 'say'.
- ?????
- g They told me not to wait for a long time.
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The usage is as follows:
Tell somebody something (with indirect object): 'Jim told me that you've been offered a new job.'
Say something
0In the first sentence, "say" and "tell" both work.
In the second sentence, "said" works but "told" is ungrammatical. "said" uses the conversational pattern "say to do something", meaning ask or request someone to do something (or in this case not to do something). Another example: "They said to get here at about eight".
(Cross-posted.)
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