{"id":62,"date":"2013-10-24T03:23:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T03:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monkeygrammar.org\/index.php\/2013\/10\/24\/talk-say\/"},"modified":"2020-04-15T14:35:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T14:35:49","slug":"talk-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/talk-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk & Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Verbs of Mouths (1)<\/o:p><\/div>\n
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How long have you been speaking English?  And how good is your spoken English?  If I tell you that there is <\/span>a secret <\/span>about spoken English that is not known to learners of English?  Will you be surprised?  Well don\u2019t be.     <\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Well, what does the secret have to do with you?  If you get it, you can <\/span>speak better English<\/span>:<\/span><\/div>\n
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                                    <\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
           at a meeting<\/span><\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
                                        in negotiation<\/span><\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
                                               upon presenting your proposal<\/span><\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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The verbs of mouth talked about here are the four of the busiest<\/span>verbs in spoken English.  They are:<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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say, talk, tell, and speak<\/span><\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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The four verbs of mouth seem easy.  Well, think again!  There are differences, sometimes huge ones, between them.  What are they?  You\u2019re going to do an easier pair first, namely, <\/span>talk<\/span> and <\/span>say<\/span>:<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Pair One: Talk and Say<\/span><\/o:p><\/h1>\n

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Now read the following two sentences:<\/span>
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The MD <\/span><\/b>said that<\/span><\/b>things will be all right.<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
The MD <\/span><\/b>talked that<\/span><\/b>things will be all right.<\/span><\/b><\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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I don\u2019t know if things will be all right, but what I know is there is something wrong with:  <\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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The MD <\/span><\/b>talked<\/span><\/b>that things will be all right.<\/span><\/b><\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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Why is it wrong<\/span>?  What is the difference between \u2018talk\u2019 and \u2018say\u2019?  Before you get the answer, think about the question:<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Which one will you take when you have<\/span><\/b> <\/span>a view to express<\/span><\/span> at a meeting, <\/span><\/b>talk or say?<\/span><\/b><\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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If you look up the meaning of \u2018talk\u2019 from the Oxford online dictionary <\/span>(talk)<\/span><\/a>, \u2018talk\u2019 is <\/span>c<\/span><\/span>ausal<\/span><\/span> <\/span>as it means saying something aloud<\/span>, or speaking to someone<\/span>, as shown in the two examples below: <\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Talk<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Something<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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We talked about<\/span><\/b><\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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 <\/span><\/b>the new division<\/span><\/b> (at the meeting).<\/span><\/b><\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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Talk<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Somebody<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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The CEO talked to<\/span><\/b><\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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 his friend<\/span><\/b> (about the new project).<\/span><\/b><\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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Simply put, you <\/span>don\u2019t<\/span> use \u2018talk\u2019 <\/span>to express an idea, <\/span><\/span>that a few words<\/span> follow ‘talk’, and talk <\/span>‘talk’ does not come with<\/span> other verbs<\/span>:<\/span>
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Talk about a new project<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
talk  to the CEO<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What about \u2018say\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Yet, the verb \u2018say\u2019 is different<\/span>.  <\/span>It is used to express a thought, something that is <\/span>longer than a few words<\/span>, something that has a verb<\/span> in it, for example:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The financial secretary said<\/span> that the fund stood at 1 million<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n

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\u2193<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
\u2193<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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that + the fund stood at 1 million  ——–> (an idea, a thought)<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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In a word<\/span>, it is all about what follows ‘talk’ and ‘say’:<\/span><\/span>
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\u2018talk\u2019 comes with a <\/span><\/span>few words<\/span>, but <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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\u2018say\u2019 comes with <\/span>a ‘sentence’ <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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 (The next post is about Pair Two: Tell & Speak.)<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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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\u2019t be.      Well, what does the secret have to do with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/FreeGreatPicture.com-29143-interesting-business-image.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":759,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}