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I have confusion about said and told.

It may seem like very small thing, because said and told are synonyms, but I wonder if there are times when one is more appropriate or correct than the other.

Jasper
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Mohsin Shaikh
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  • Questions are duplicates when they are asking the same thing, not because an answer for a question is also saying what another user wants to ask in a new question. If an answer adds information not requested from the OP, then we would close as duplicates questions that ask completely different things. – apaderno Aug 02 '13 at 10:30
  • You said you are confused about said and told. May you give an example where you would use said instead of told? Alternatively, do you have an example of sentence using one of those words, for which you would use the other word? Did you read the dictionary? After reading it, what still confuses you about said and told? – apaderno Aug 02 '13 at 10:32
  • That MSO post doesn't say that now questions with an answer that tangentially answer a different question not asked by the OP can be used to close a question asking that part. Also, we have an exact close reason for questions asking about the word meanings and not giving enough details. – apaderno Aug 02 '13 at 11:31
  • I think this question is even more closely related: Why is "He said me he was ..." ungrammatical, but "He told me he was ..." is not? – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 02 '13 at 11:49
  • Welcome to ELL, Mohsin. As you see, there are at least two questions here which have answers which may help you, so your question is likely to be put on hold. If those answers are insufficient, you may edit your question to tell us exactly what they leave unanswered and it will be reopened. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 02 '13 at 12:07
  • @StoneyB It could be a duplicate. Truly, what the OP find confusing about said and told is not clear to me. Does he have problems in understanding if he would say "Because I said so." or "Because I told so"? – apaderno Aug 02 '13 at 12:26
  • @kiamlaluno I believe the most common learner mistake is an indirect object with say -- things like He said me he was going to be here. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 02 '13 at 15:18
  • @StoneyB That is a mistake that an Italian would probably do, since Italian uses just a verb (dire) for tell (Ti ho detto che non lo so.) and say (Dico che dobbiamo fare qualcosa.). Still the OP didn't make explicit what confuses him; it could be he thinks it's "I told you," but "I said them." – apaderno Aug 02 '13 at 15:42

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