Yeji Song
she told me something / she said somiething to me? She told me she loved me. She said that she loved me. What's the difference between those two sentences fundamentally?
Jul 3, 2015 7:45 AM
Answers · 6
2
The meanings of these two verbs, tell and say, are similar. The main meaning of tell is to "say or write something to someone." The main meaning of say is to "use your voice to express something in words." However, there are some clear and easy rules to follow about when to use these two words. Tell is used only to instruct or inform, and when the receiver of the information is included as an object of the verb. Do not use for quotes. Say is used for exact quotes, and when the receiver isn’t mentioned in the sentence and is also used to express opinions.
July 3, 2015
2
1. 'She told me something' means that she gave me some information. The focus is on the content. 2. 'She said something to me' focuses on the words she said. We know nothing about the content. Perhaps there was no content - maybe she just said 'Hi, how are you?'. If you say 'Hi, how are you?', you are saying something, but you are not telling anyone anything because there is no transmission of information. Maybe you don't know if there was any content. For example, 'She said something to me, but I couldn't hear what she was saying' or 'She said something to me, but her accent was so strong that I didn't understand her'. In your examples, there is no real difference, because they both involve an exchange of information.
July 3, 2015
no1,Chinese no2,English
July 3, 2015
One difference is that 'She said that she loved me' might have been said to third person. For example, you could say 'She said she loved me' if she told her sister that she loved me.
July 3, 2015
Nothing.
July 3, 2015
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