tell, say, talk, speak

Question

Hi everyone!I couldn't hear what she was ___________ .a) telling  b) saying  c) talking  d) speaking Can anyone tell me how to explain why a, c and d are the wrong choices in this particular case? Thank you very much!

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I couldn't hear what she was __ .

a) telling b) saying c) talking d) speaking

Can anyone tell me how to explain why a, c and d are the wrong choices in this particular case?

The idea here is that I couldn't hear the vocal sounds she was making.

'Telling' focuses on information and not on sounds.

'What' is the object of the missing verb, so the missing verb has to be a verb that can take an object. 'Talking' and 'speaking' don't normally take an object, ie you can't usually 'talk something' or 'speak something'. There are some special cases, eg you can speak English, but the name of a language doesn't seem to fit well in your example.

Best wishes, Clive

Avangi · Answer

Talking and speaking don't usually take objects. In this type of sentence we'd expect an adverb. How was she talking/speaking?

Telling might work with more context, but in this case you'd have to hear what she was saying before you could even decide if she was telling anything at all. In other words, you could hear her speak a single word, and understand it, and say you heard her say something. But you'd have to hear her say a lot of words to decide if she was telling a story, or asking a question or just speaking gibberish.

Loojka · Answer

Thank you, Clive! Thank you, Avangi! You really helped a lot.

tell, say, talk, speak

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