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Part 'One
1 TELL

The Top, T~fl

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Mistakes: *He told that he was tired. *He told what had happened. *He told me goodbye. (b) *Tell ajew words about your holiday. (b) '" *I'd like to tell my ideasabout this problem. (c) *1 have to tell that Bartk was a relative ofmine. (c) *lIe said me to do it. (f) Rale: Tell must always be foUowed by a personaUndirect who we tell. . He told us that he was tired. He toldlthem what had happe11i!d. a. It may not be clear what the indirect object should be (Le. the Hungarian sentence you arc thinking of does not have on~).ln this case, you ha;vethree object~we say

escaperoutes.

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1. uvent the indirect 'object. This is usually fairlyeasy.

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1 spo~eto him andhe toia me that lewas t~

2. Use anotherverb,
He described what hlld happened.

suclt as explain, mention or describe, which does

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not need an indirect object (see Entry 2).

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clause

3. Us',say, especially,df'it is followed by a reported'speech beginning with that. He said that he was.tired.

Note that say is normally not followed by the indirect object; but when the indirect object is used, it must be preceded by to,. 1 said to him that it was too late. b. Tell, even with an indirect object, cannot be used in certain cases. The two main cases where tell must be avoided are: Y-~' 7

1. When itfs f011uwed by obJects like aW(Jrd, an idea, a sentence, aphrase,

etc. Here say must be used. Compart\1: Say afew words about your holMay. Tell us something about your holiday. , 2. When it is followed by the actual worqs spoken. This applies'eveni( the words are not in inverted .., commas (HunglisIi makes mistakes especially ~ wi!h yes, no, hello, goodbye, etc.).1}gain He sai4 goodbye. . He said, 'I'm leaving now.' say must be used.

c. There arc tWl?phrases with tell which are pure Hunglish. *Tell my ideasf . opinionand *I have lo tell that... rare unfortunately not English. YQU. should insteaduse phrases such as; l' d like to tell ,you whJt I think about ,. this problem. I'd like to give (you) my opinion about this problem. I s.houldmention that Bartk was a relative of mine. I mightpoint out that it was getting late by this time.
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d. There are certain phrases In which tell can be used without an indirect object. These inc1ude: tell (somebody) a !ie/the truth; tell (somebody) ajoke/ story; etc. However, even in these phrases it is normally possble to use the indh:,ect object; therefore, it is safer to keep to the unbreakable rule that ,tel/must always have an indirect object. e. The phrase tell the fime is only apparently an exception. It can only be used to mean know how to read a clock (its origin.is another meaning of tell.to count). Compare: The children are learning to tell the time at school.

Couldyou tell me the time,pkase?

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f. Note thl:!tsay cannot be used to report commands~ The pattern must be tell with the indirect object followed by the full infinitive. He told me to do it. I told the silly old man to shut up.

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- ------2 SUGGEST
Mistakes:
etC.

*He suggested us to go to a restaurant. (a)

*He was suggested to work harder. (c) *Let me explain you what to do. (d) *He mentioned us the title of the book. (d) *Peter repor.ted the teacher that Sally was cheating. (d)

a. Suggest cannot be followedby indirect object plus infinitive.The most

- usual structure is a that-clause with shbuld:
He suggestedthat
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we should go to a restaurant.

It can also, though perhaps less frequently, be followed by a that-clause without should:,./
1;

1 suggested that she went home. 1 suggest that he buys k car. (In a rather formai style, this last example may appear as: 1 sug'gest that he buy a car.) A third possibility is an -ing form:

Some people suggested phoning the station.

b. If the person to whom the suggestion is made is mentioned,

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tq must be
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used.
The Queen"Suggested to the Prime Minister that the Governmeni

should

resign. However, in English the indirect object is very often left out aItogether, especially if it is only a pronoun; and when suggest !s in the present tense the indirect object is almost never used. She sU$gested (to me) that we should leave. '1 suggest we leave,-'she said. When suggest is followed by an -ing form, the to plus indirect object must

come at the end:

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He suggested going home to his wife. This is rather clumsy, and tends to be difficult for a foreign learner to handle,
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so you are advisedto keep to the that-clause:

He suggested to his wife that he should zo home.

c. Suggest cannot be passivized with the receiver of the suggestion bcing made the subject. Tell, f course, can. Compare:

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