10分鐘Grammar精讀 -3

10分鐘Grammar精讀 學英文最討厭的就是似懂非懂，模模糊糊，永遠在學卻永遠學不會。每天花10分鐘精讀文法，學英文毫無疲勞感，但你一定要確定這十分鐘，你弄懂一個文法概念。 Speak, talk, say, tell 都和"說"有關，用法有何不同？

Speak比較莊重，表示某人(即講者)在一段對話中所說的話較其它人多。 The CEO speaks to us every morning at the assembly. Tom, your boss wants to speak to you. Talk不及speak莊重，而且多用於說話，少用於書寫。

Talk表示兩個或更多的人在對話。 The students were talking loudly in the classroom, in the very presence of the teacher. 當受詞是一種語言時，要用 speak 不用 talk 或 say：

（O）Victor speaks fluent English.

（Ｘ）Victor talks fluent English.

（Ｘ）Victor says fluent English.

在書寫英語， talk 很少用作及物動詞，除非在 talk 後接用以下的受詞： Stop talking nonsense. They are talking business again. 若不是接用上列的受詞，talk 後必需接用前置詞 about。

（O）Betty and Susan are talking about the trip to London.

（Ｘ）Betty and Susan are talking their trip to London.

Say通常跟講者所說的話一起使用，不論是直述句或陳述句：

Please say hello / thank you to your colleagues.

What did your boss say when you told him about your plan?

'I can't believe it,' he said. He said that he could not believe it.

可是， say 有時也可用於一些非直述句或陳述句中。

看看以下的例子：

 I want you to say something about how we met at our wedding party.

注意 something about how we met並不是用於引述別人所說的真實語句。

另一方面， tell 並不是用於引述別人所說的話語，而是表達別人的說話中所述的事實或資料： He told me about the accident. He told us a funny story.

在陳述一項命令句中，應用 tell 而不用 say：

 'Keep quiet,' the teacher said to the students.

The teacher told the students to keep quiet.

 'Don't stay up late,' my mother said to me.

 He told me not to stay up late.