Verbs of Mouths (1)

How long have you been speaking English?  And how good is your spoken English?  If I tell you that there is a secret about spoken English that is not known to learners of English?  Will you be surprised?  Well don’t be.     

Well, what does the secret have to do with you?  If you get it, you can speak better English:

                                   

           at a meeting

                                        in negotiation

                                               upon presenting your proposal

The verbs of mouth talked about here are the four of the busiestverbs in spoken English.  They are:

say, talk, tell, and speak

The four verbs of mouth seem easy.  Well, think again!  There are differences, sometimes huge ones, between them.  What are they?  You’re going to do an easier pair first, namely, talk and say:

Pair One: Talk and Say

Now read the following two sentences:

The MD said thatthings will be all right.

The MD talked thatthings will be all right.

I don’t know if things will be all right, but what I know is there is something wrong with: 

The MD talkedthat things will be all right.

Why is it wrong?  What is the difference between ‘talk’ and ‘say’?  Before you get the answer, think about the question:

Which one will you take when you have a view to express at a meeting, talk or say?

If you look up the meaning of ‘talk’ from the Oxford online dictionary (talk), ‘talk’ is causal as it means saying something aloud, or speaking to someone, as shown in the two examples below:

Talk	Something
We talked about	the new division (at the meeting).
Talk	Somebody
The CEO talked to	his friend (about the new project).

Simply put, you don’t use ‘talk’ to express an idea, that a few words follow ‘talk’, and talk ‘talk’ does not come with other verbs:

Talk about a new project

talk  to the CEO

What about ‘say’

Yet, the verb ‘say’ is different.  It is used to express a thought, something that is longer than a few words, something that has a verb in it, for example:

The financial secretary said that the fund stood at 1 million.

↓

↓

↓

that + the fund stood at 1 million  ——–> (an idea, a thought)

In a word, it is all about what follows ‘talk’ and ‘say’:

‘talk’ comes with a few words, but 

‘say’ comes with a ‘sentence’ 

 (The next post is about Pair Two: Tell & Speak.)