To after some verbs

[Anne59]

Can anyone please tell me why I need to after the verbs said and talk but not after told and asked.

I said to my friend I’d see her later.
I talk to my friend every day.
I told my friend to leave.
I asked my friend to leave.

[LeUyenHoc]

Hi Anne59,

I think there are some structures for some verbs like that, for example:

S + V + to + O

S + V + O

Need more discussion.

Not a teacher

[2006]

Can anyone please tell me why I need to after the verbs said and talk but not after told and asked. You don't always need "to" after (say)(said) and talke(d). 'I said my friend was wrong.' 'I will talk about that next week.'

But you do need the preposition "to" in your sentences.
I said to my friend I’d see her later.
I talk to my friend every day.

I told my friend to leave. "told" never takes "to" directly after it except in the passsive voice. My friend was told to leave.
In the active voice,"told" is always directly followed by a direct or indirect object. 'He told the story to me.' 'He told me the story.'

I asked my friend to leave. No preposition "to" here.
Again, in the passive voice you can say 'My friend was asked to leave. In the active voice you can say 'I asked to leave early.

I don't know how helpful my explanation is. Part of the answer is that's just how English is; a lot depends on the particular sentence structure.

[Soup]

In addition to 2006's great advice, the semantics also comes into play here.

Say, talk, and speak refer to uttering sound, and sound is directional, so, e.g., say to, talk to, speak to.

The verbs tell and ask refer more so to receiving or giving information. Thus, the information or source of that information tends to come first; e.g., tell it to you. ask my friend.