Speaking English: SAY, TELL, HEAR, LISTEN – How to use them correctly

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Wow, did he really say that?

Hi, I'm James from www.engvid.com.

If you haven't heard of it, you're going to.

Stick with me, alright?

Did he really say that?

Well, what did he tell you?

Well, what did you hear?

Were you listening?

These are four words I hear all the time when I teach English.

Students get confused.

So today, we're going to work on that.

Say, tell, hear, and listen.

What do they mean?

Why do we use them?

I don't want to hear you make these mistakes anymore.

Okay, when you tell people things, you're going to say the right thing.

Ready? Let's go.

Alright, first of all, let's look at the seeing ones, yeah?

To keep it really, really simple, basically put, if I say something to you,

it's going to be exactly what I said, and you just repeat it.

What did John say?

Now, the past of say is said.

And in either case, you just repeat whatever the person said.

What did he say to you?

He said he was sorry.

What did he say?

You just repeat.

So when we say say in English, you basically repeat, okay,

exactly what somebody said.

Tell is a little different.

This is where students get confused.

When people tell you things, number one, I'm going to tell you about my vacation to Spain.

By telling you something, I'm going to give you information.

I'm not repeating something.

I'm actually giving you information.

That's one use of tell.

We use it for information.

For instance, I can't say to you, "Say me where you were last night."

It makes no sense.

I'll go, "Excuse me?

What do you mean?"

But you say, "Tell me."

I go, "Ah, you want information."

Now, let's say you are putting together, well, no.

How about if I wanted to tell you how to get to www.engvid.com?

Yes, you want information, but you want something else as well.

You want instructions.

I might have to say, "Turn on your computer, go to Internet Explorer," or whatever you use.

So, you also want instructions.

So, we say, "For instructions, we use this."

Now, a third one are orders.

When someone tells you, "Do this."

Well, what did he tell you?

He told me to go home.

So, when somebody orders you or tells you to do something, okay?

Now, if you're looking, "Say" is to repeat exactly what you were told.

What did he say?

You might say it's information, but I'm repeating what the person actually said.

"Telling" is different in that you can give information.

It may not be the exact words the person used, but you're using them.

You're giving the information.

Instructions, maybe I need help with something.

You're going to tell me what to do.

Give me instructions.

Or, maybe you want me to do it now.

Maybe, I'm sure your parents would have said this to you, "What did I tell you?"

What orders did I give you?

What were you supposed to do?

Before I go and give you the next lesson, what I want you to do is repeat to yourself.

The blue screen will come up empty.

You fill it in.

There should be one for say, three for tell.

Did you get it right?

If you did, say, repeat exactly.

Tell, for information.

Instructions and orders.

Now, let's do the other part.

This was talking.

What about listening?

Now, in English, we like to say active and passive.

Active means you do it.

You're actually doing it.

Passive means it happens to you.

Now, in the case of listen and hear, one is active, one is passive.

I'm going to give you a sentence and you figure out which one it is.

You're in school.

Your teacher is talking.

Your teacher suddenly asks you a question.

You say, "I don't know."

The teacher will say, "A, did you hear me? B, were you listening?"

Well, if you're in class, you're supposed to be listening.

Listening is active.

This means you are, in a word, focusing on sound or a specific sound.

So, you're listening.

In school, you listen.

You actually listen to what the teacher is saying.

Now, if you figured out which one is active, you know which one is the passive one.

And in this case, what I mean is the sound comes to you.

You're not focusing on it.

It's just around you.

So, passive is when a sound just comes to you.

That's what you hear.

So, right now...

I hope you didn't hear that.

I know you were listening to the lesson.

You didn't want to hear what I did.

You heard the sound.

Not the best, but I never said I was normal.

So, passive is when you hear something.

You're not focusing on it.

It's just around you.

So, that sound around you.

So, next time someone is saying something and you want to tell them that you actually

find what they say important, you would say, "I'm listening to you.

I am focused on what you have to tell me."

Now, if something happens, like...

I'm not going to do it again.

But, say, a bird is singing or a car door closes, you say, "Did you hear the car door

Do you hear the bird singing?"

Because you know the person may not be focused on it.

So, let's do a quick review.

Think about it.

Which one is which?

Blue screen is going to come up.

You know the drill.

We'll talk about idioms, okay, when you come back.

You know the drill.

Anyway, think about it.

Blue screen comes up blank.

You fill it in.

Active, the word "listening" or "listen."

Passive, "hear" or "hearing."

And a quick overall.

What is "say" for?

"Say," when you repeat exactly what someone said.

"Tell," there are three.

I'll give you one.

"Orders," what are the other two?

And, what is "active," when we use our ears?

That's right, "listening," and "hearing" is passive.

"I hope you heard," oops, I forgot to tell you, that's post-participle.

"Heard everything I told you," because I know you were listening.

I didn't want to say it twice, but I'm sure you got what I was trying to tell you.

Listen, have a great day.

And before I go, I just want to tell you where to come to get more information about these

and other words.

There are, myself and other teachers are happy to help you, okay, in your learning experience.

What I'd like you to do is, listen carefully, right, go to www.engvid.com, okay, where we

will be able to tell you more about English, and you'll be able to say it to your friends

that you learned it from us, okay?

Have a good day.

Are you still there?

You know the drill.

It means you know what's going to happen next.

Don't tell the students who left too early, okay?

So you know the drill.

You know what's going to happen next.

See you at www.engvid.com.