speak, talk, say和tell用法解析

speak比較莊重，表示某人(即講者)在一段對(duì)話中所說的話較其它人多。

舉例：

the principal speaks to us every morning at the assembly.

tom, your boss wants to speak to you.

talk不及speak莊重，而且多用于說話，少用于書寫。 talk表示兩個(gè)或更多的人在對(duì)話。

舉例：

the students were talking loudly in the classroom, in the very presence of the teacher.

當(dāng)賓語(yǔ)是一種語(yǔ)言時(shí)，要用 speak 不用 talk 或 say：

正確： victor speaks fluent putonghua.

錯(cuò)誤： victor talks fluent putonghua.

錯(cuò)誤： victor says fluent putonghua.

在書面英語(yǔ)， talk 極少用作及物動(dòng)詞，除非在 talk 后接用以下的賓語(yǔ)：

stop talking nonsense.

they are talking business again.

若不是接用上列的賓語(yǔ)，talk 后必需接用前置詞 about。

舉例：

正確： betty and susan are talking about the trip to london.

錯(cuò)誤： 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 mum.

what did your father say when you told him about your plan to get married? 'i cant believe it,' he said.

he said that he could not believe it.

可是， say 有時(shí)也可用于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并不是用于引述別人所說的真實(shí)語(yǔ)句。

另一方面， tell 并不是用于引述別人所說的話語(yǔ)，而是表達(dá)別人的說話中所述的事實(shí)或資料：

he told me about the accident.

he told his parents the truth.

he told us a funny story.

在陳述命令句中，應(yīng)用 tell 而不用 say：

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

the teacher told the students to keep quiet.

'dont stay up late,' my mother said to me.

my mother told me not to stay up late.