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.

Hoy os traemos de nuevo un post de phrasal verbs. En este caso veremos phrasal verbs de uso muy común con look. Recuerda que aunque pueden resultarnos un poco complicadillos, lo mejor es ir aprendiendolos poco a poco y comenzar a utilizar algunos de ellos una vez tienes claro su significado. Para eso, hoy te proponemos estos 15 phrasal verbs con look con su significado y ejemplos.

To look for / to search – buscar.

E.g.
She’s looking for a new job.
I didn’t find what I was looking for.

To look after / to take care of – cuidar.

E.g.
I need a babysitter to look after my children.
Do you mind looking after my dog next weekend?

To look up / to try to find information – buscar información (en un diccionario, libro, en internet).

E.g.

I’ll look it up on Wikipedia.
They looked the words up in a dictionary.

To look forward to / to be waiting and excited about a future event – esperar ansioso, entusiasmado.

E.g.
I look forward to meeting you again.
He is looking forward to your visit.

To look over / to quickly examine something – echar un vistazo.

E.g.
Could you look over my notes and tell me what you think?
I like to look over the newspaper before going to work.

To look up to / to respect and admire someone – admirar a alguien.

E.g.
I look up to my father, I hope I will be like him some day.
He has always looked up to his boss.

To look down on / to feel better than other people – creerse mejor, menospreciar a alguien.

E.g.
Rich people look down on others.
Many companies look down on their employees.

To look into / to investigate, examine – investigar, examinar con detalle.

E.g.
You’ll have to look into the pros and cons of moving to another country.
The doctor looked into the injury and prescribed some antibiotics.

To look in on / to visit someone for a short time – visitar a alguien, pasarse a ver.

E.g.
Could you look in on your grandma and see if she’s all right?
Ok, I’ll look in on her on my way home.

To look back on / to think about something in the past – recordar, pensar sobre el pasado.

E.g.
I feel proud when I look back on the things I’ve done in my life.
If you look back on your childhood you will remember happy times.

To look out / to watch and be careful – tener cuidado.

E.g.
Look out! There is broken glass on the floor.
Look out with that dog, it seems dangerous.

To look at / to consider or examine something – considerar, examinar.

E.g.
We will look at all the proposal before making a decision.
Management are looking at ways of cutting costs.

To look around / to visit, to search – buscar, visitar, mirar alrededor.

E.g.
We started looking around for a house on the beach.
They looked around the city but they didn’t find the gallery.

To look through / to examine or read something briefly – hojear, revisar.

E.g.
Have you look through the report I sent you?
I was looking through some books on the subject.

To look to / to rely on someone for help – esperar que alguien haga algo por ti.

E.g.
We look to our manager to give us the instructions.
I look to Kim to help me with my exam.

Seguro que algunos ya te sonaban y los puedes tachar de la lista 😉