What are the differences between these words?

[devonpham1998]

What are the differences between these words: 'speak to', 'talk to', 'tell', 'say to'?
In a particular e.g: "Liz talked to Tom about her vacation." vs. "Liz told Tom about her vacation.", are there any differences between the two sentences?

What are the difference between these words: 'turtle' and 'tortoise'? Which is used more commonly? Which is used in UK and which is used in US?

Thanks so much!

Dev

 

[Vidor]

not a teacher

"Speak to" and "talk to" imply a conversation between two people. "Tell" doesn't, really. You could TELL someone about your vacation via an e-mail.

In the United States "turtle" is more common than "tortoise". In fact "tortoise" refers to the kind of turtles that live on land, although lots of people loosely use "turtle" to refer to all varieties of the animal--which isn't wrong, really, as "turtle" is in fact the common word for the entire order. See here.