Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Say versus tell

489a

Say

and tell function differently in speech reports. Tell focuses on the content or message of

what was said:

She 

told him they were going on holiday. 

(focus on the information)

Say

focuses more on the words someone said:

‘Hello,’ she 

said. 

(‘Hello,’ she told me.)

Say

can introduce direct reports. Tell is not normally used in this way:

He 

said, ‘I’m not paying £50 for that.’

(He told me, ‘I’m not paying £50 for that.’)

Say

and tell have different rules of complementation. Say is used with an optional

prepositional complement and an object (which is the reported clause). Tell normally has an

indirect object, along with a direct object (which is the reported clause):

I 

said to her, ‘When I’m ready I’ll tell you.’

806 | Speech representation

Cambridge Grammar of English

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She 

said

she didn’t know anything about it

.

(or: She told me she didn’t know anything about it.)

(She told she didn’t know anything about it.)

And then they 

told us

we had to do it

.

(or: And then they said we had to do it.)

(And then they told we had to do it.)

Say

is not used with an indirect object to refer to the person addressed:

I said to her, ‘When I’m ready I’ll tell you.’

(I said her, ‘When I’m ready I’ll tell you.’)

They told me I’d have to wait.

(or: They said I’d have to wait.)

(They said me I’d have to wait.)

Generally, tell but not say is used with an infinitive clause to report directives:

The man from Foreign Affairs had 

told her to prepare for the worst.

But in informal spoken contexts, say may also be used with an infinitive clause to report a

directive:

I phoned up the hospital and they 

said to go down.