Hay verbos en inglés que nos resultan confusos (especialmente a los hispano hablantes) como say & tell porque son muy parecidos en significado, pero la manera de usarlos es diferente. En este post te lo dejamos claro para que no te confundas más con say & tell.

Donde más problemas solemos tener es cuando usamos el estilo indirecto (o reported speech) porque reproducimos el contenido de un mensaje, vaya, cuando hablamos de una conversación que tuvimos con otra persona: «y yo le dije, entonces él me dijo que ella le había dicho lo que nosotros le dijimos…» y aquí ya tenemos un lio montado, esto es un poco exagerado pero

Vamos a verlo paso a paso:

 He said me that he wasn’t interested in sports.
 He said that he wasn’t interested in sports.
 He said (to me) that he wasn’t interested in sports.
 He told to me that he wasn’t interested in sports.
 He told me that he wasn’t interested in sports.

Utilizamos say con la estructura say something / say that

E.g.
I said hello.
We said goodbye before leaving.
He said that he wasn’t interested in sports.
They said that they needed more time to make a decision.
She said that we should study more.

Si incluimos una persona, utilizamos la estructura say something to someone or say to someone something

E.g.
He said to me that he wasn’t interested in sports.
She said to us that we should study more.
I said to him that he was very generous.

Utilizamos tell con la estructura tell someone something / tell someone that, el verbo tell en este caso siempre necesita un objeto indirecto o pronombre personal (la persona con la que hablamos)

E.g.
She told me the truth.
I told them a joke.
He told me that he wasn’t interested in sports.
They told us that we had to work harder.
I told him that she wasn’t coming.

En todos los ejemplos anteriores hemos utilizado say and tell en pasado pero es posible también usarlos en presente y/o presente continuo

E.g.
She says that I need to do exercise.
Mark says that you have a new job.
He always tells her that they should live together.
They are always telling us that we have to work harder.

Además hay otra estructura que podemos utilizar con tell para indicar una orden o un consejo tell someone to do something

E.g.
She told him to sit down.
He told me (not) to wait.
They told us to work harder.
The teacher told us to do the activities.

Hay una serie de expresiones «fijas» (fixed expressions) que siempre usamos con say

Fixed expressions with say

Say hello / goodbye
Say good morning / afternoon / etc
Say something
Say nothing
Say a word / a few words
Say a prayer

Y también otras que siempre usamos con tell

Fixed expressions with tell

Tell the truth
Tell a lie
Tell a story
Tell a joke
Tell a secret
Tell the time
Tell the difference

Parece mucha información pero en resumen…

You say something or say (to someone) something

E.g.
He said hello to everyone.
He says that he doesn’t like coffee

You tell someone something

E.g.
He told me many lies.
He told me that he doesn’t like coffee.

Y ahora una pequeña prueba para ver si te ha quedado claro:

Completa con say o tell (en pasado)

Angela ____ them to be punctual.
He ____ that we couldn’t wait.
I ____ you to complete the task.
We ____ him that you were ill.
She ____ that you have to help her.
They ____ us many lies.
Anthony ____ that he was hungry.
I ____ nothing to them.
He ____ to her that he wasn’t interested.

VER RESPUESTAS CORRECTAS

Esperamos que después de leer este post ya no te confundas más con say & tell, el secreto es recordar que tell siempre necesita «someone» cuando hablamos de lo que decimos a otra persona.

Además si te has quedado con ganas de leer un poco más y quieres conocer otros errores comunes que cometemos los hispanohablantes te recomendamos que leas este post: 30 errores comunes en inglés que no debes cometer más