What's the difference between saying and telling?

Saying


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Say
  • (n.) That which is said; a declaration; a statement, especially a proverbial one; an aphorism; a proverb.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Lebedev says he is aware that he is under investigation.
  • (2) says Gregg Wallace opening the new series of Celebrity MasterChef (Mon-Fri, 2.15pm, BBC1).
  • (3) However, some contactless transactions are processed offline so may not appear on a customer’s account until after the block has been applied.” It says payments that had been made offline on the day of cancellation may be applied to accounts and would be refunded when the customer identified them; payments made on days after the cancellation will not be taken from an account.
  • (4) But when they decided to get married, "finding the clothes became my project," says Melanie.
  • (5) Mike Ashley told Lee Charnley that maybe he could talk with me last week but I said: ‘Listen, we cannot say too much so I think it’s better if we wait.’ The message Mike Ashley is sending is quite positive, but it was better to talk after we play Tottenham.” Benítez will ask Ashley for written assurances over his transfer budget, control of transfers and other spheres of club autonomy, but can also reassure the owner that the prospect of managing in the second tier holds few fears for him.
  • (6) Schneiderlin, valued at an improbable £27m, and the currently injured Jay Rodriguez are wanted by their former manager Mauricio Pochettino at Spurs, but the chairman Ralph Krueger has apparently called a halt to any more outgoings, saying: “They are part of the core that we have decided to keep at Southampton.” He added: “Jay Rodriguez and Morgan Schneiderlin are not for sale and they will be a part of our club as we enter the new season.” The new manager Ronald Koeman has begun rebuilding by bringing in Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pellè from the Dutch league and Krueger said: “We will have players coming in, we will make transfers to strengthen the squad.
  • (7) The idea that 80% of an engineer's time is spent on the day job and 20% pursuing a personal project is a mathematician's solution to innovation, Brin says.
  • (8) Unlike Milo, he appears to be – to some extent – convinced of the truth of what he’s saying.
  • (9) It is my desperate hope that we close out of town.” In the book, God publishes his own 'It Getteth Better' video and clarifies his original writings on homosexuality: I remember dictating these lines to Moses; and afterward looking up to find him staring at me in wide-eyed astonishment, and saying, "Thou do knowest that when the Israelites read this, they're going to lose their fucking shit, right?"
  • (10) Joe, meanwhile, defends her right to say "negro" whenever she wants.
  • (11) I hope this movement will continue and spread for it has within itself the power to stand up to fascism, be victorious in the face of extremism and say no to oppressive political powers everywhere.” Appearing via videolink from Tehran, and joined by London mayor Sadiq Khan and Palme d’Or winner Mike Leigh, Farhadi said: “We are all citizens of the world and I will endeavour to protect and spread this unity.” The London screening of The Salesman on Sunday evening wasintended to be a show of unity and strength against Trump’s travel ban, which attempted to block arrivals in the US from seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
  • (12) 8.47pm: Cameron says he believes Britain's best days lie ahead and that he believes in public service.
  • (13) Critics say he is unelectable as prime minister and will never be able to implement his plans, but he has nonetheless pulled attention back to an issue that many thought had gone away for good.
  • (14) A new propaganda video by Islamic State featuring the British photojournalist John Cantlie, in which he says it is the “last film in this series”, has appeared online.
  • (15) I think he had been saying all season that with three or four games to go he will tell us where we are.
  • (16) It was with unanimous consent.” He denied that Trump’s tweets had played a part, saying: “No, no, no.
  • (17) That doesn't necessarily mean she'll like what I'm saying."
  • (18) This week's unconfirmed claims that Kim's uncle Jang Song Thaek had been ousted from power have refocused attention on the country's domestic affairs; some analysts say Jang was associated with reform .
  • (19) On the other hand the TUC says people should also be prepared to be out in the sun for several hours and bring sunscreen and if possible a hat.
  • (20) 'The French see it as an open and shut case,' says a Paris-based diplomat.

Telling


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Tell
  • (a.) Operating with great effect; effective; as, a telling speech.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Michael James, 52, from Tower Hamlets Three days after telling his landlord that the flat upstairs was a deathtrap, Michael James was handed an eviction notice.
  • (2) In platform shoes to emulate Johnson's height, and with the aid of prosthetic earlobes, Cranston becomes the 36th president: he bullies and cajoles, flatters and snarls and barks, tells dirty jokes or glows with idealism as required, and delivers the famous "Johnson treatment" to everyone from Martin Luther King to the racist Alabama governor George Wallace.
  • (3) Today’s figures tell us little about the timing of the first increase in interest rates, which will depend on bigger picture news on domestic growth, pay trends and perceived downside risks in the global economy,” he said.
  • (4) Anytime they feel parts of the Basic Law are not up to their current standards of political correctness, they will change it and tell Hong Kong courts to obey.
  • (5) "With hyperspectral imaging, you can tell the chemical content of a cake just by taking a photo of it.
  • (6) I think he had been saying all season that with three or four games to go he will tell us where we are.
  • (7) I can see you use humour as a defence mechanism, so in return I could just tell you that if he's massively rich or famous and you've decided you'll put up with it to please him, you'll eventually discover it's not worth it.
  • (8) Are you ready to vote?” is the battle cry, and even the most superficial of glances at the statistics tells why.
  • (9) But what they take for a witticism might very well be true; most of Ellis's novels tell more or less the same story, about the same alienated ennui, and maybe they really are nothing more than the fictionalised diaries of an unremarkably unhappy man.
  • (10) On Friday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry appeared to confirm those fears, telling reporters that the joint declaration, a deal negotiated by London and Beijing guaranteeing Hong Kong’s way of life for 50 years, “was a historical document that no longer had any practical significance”.
  • (11) Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tried to liven things up, but there are only so many ways to tell us to be nice to chickens.
  • (12) David Hamilton tells me: “The days of westerners leading expeditions to Nepal will pass.
  • (13) If Del Bosque really want to win this World Cup thingymebob, then he has got to tell Iker Casillas that the jig is up, correct?
  • (14) Will African film-makers tell those kind of films differently?
  • (15) July 7, 2016 Verified account A blue tick that tells you the user is either an A-list celebrity, a respected authority on an important subject or a BuzzFeed employee.
  • (16) The education secretary's wife, Sarah Vine, a columnist, said her son William, nine, and daughter Beatrice, 11, now realise how much their father is hated for his position in government because other children tell them in the playground.
  • (17) You can tell them that Deutsche Bank remains absolutely rock solid, given our strong capital and risk position.
  • (18) The debate certainly hit upon a larger issue: the tendency for people in positions of social and cultural power to tell the stories of minorities for them, rather than allowing minority communities to speak for themselves.
  • (19) In saying what he did, he was not telling any frequent flyer something they didn't already know, and he was not protesting about any newly adopted measures.
  • (20) Blight responded with a hypothetical, telling Ludlam if the ASD asked a foreign agency to get material about Australian citizens it could not access under Australian law, the IGIS would know about it and flag it in its annual report.