10 English Collocations with Say

Post author:Harry
Post last modified:01/07/2022
Post category:Useful English Collocations
Reading time:10 mins read

Here you will learn English collocations with say that will boost your English vocabulary and improve your English speaking skills.

Harry

Harry is a native English teacher with over 10 years of experience both online and in face-to-face lessons. With his extensive experience in business, he specialises in Business English lessons but happily teaches ESL students with any English learning needs.

10 Collocations with Say - Video Lesson

Today, I’m talking to you about English collocations and in particular 10 English collocations with Say.

So there are lots and lots of these collocations to go through and I’ll try and give you some helpful examples.

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So the first one is:

say something

Somebody is sitting there and they’re silent, perhaps in a class and the teacher says:

Say something!

Or if you’ve just heard some bad news and the person’s waiting for a reaction, they are very quiet. They say:

Please just say something.

So say something and then the opposite of that:

say nothing

If you don’t want to get into trouble with your parents, say nothing.

If somebody insults you or says something bad, say nothing. Don’t respond.

This is what my parents always used to tell me never work cause I always got into trouble. But they always used to tell me, say nothing.

So say something and then the opposite is say nothing.

10 Collocations with Say

Or indeed you can

say anything

have you anything to say?

so you can turn them around.

When you’re preparing, for example, an English exam, it’s not about what you say, it’s about how you see it.

So your teacher might say:

Do you want to say anything? Say, talk about your family or talk about your job. Say anything.

And of course, we can all always

say sorry

So when somebody does something or one of your children does something, you always tell them:

Say sorry, they’ll understand.

So if you hit your brother by accident or you take something from your sister or you don’t share the sweets.

Say sorry as if you mean it.

That’s what I always hear. There’s no point saying ‘oh, sorry. I’m sorry.’

say a word

We usually use this in the negative. Don’t say a word.

So somebody says:

I don’t want to hear it. I know what happened. I shouldn’t have backed the car out onto the street without looking. So I know it was my fault. Don’t say a word. I’m already upset.

10 English Collocations with Say

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say for sure

So we, again, we might use this in the negative.

I can’t say for sure and we use it also I can’t say for certain. That is very, very similar.

So are you going to join us for dinner on Friday?

I can’t say for sure at the moment because I’m waiting to hear from my brother.

I can’t say for certain, but he’s got to ring back because I just don’t know with him.

So they’ve got really the the same meaning can’t say for certain and I can’t say for sure.

And then we also have to

say hello/goodbye

So these are greetings that we use. The parents might tell their children when they’re bringing them up or they’re trying to instruct them about good manners.

When you go to the house, say hello.

If somebody says something to you, say hello.

And when you’re leaving, please say goodbye.

Remember your manners, please say goodbye.

The Beatles – Hello, Goodbye

You say, “Goodbye”, and I say, “Hello, hello, hello”
I don’t know why you say, “Goodbye”, I say, “Hello, hello, hello”
I don’t know why you say, “Goodbye”, I say, “Hello”

10 English Collocations with Say

say thank you

So when you get something, thank you.

And when you want something

say please

So these are all instructions that we give our children.

Say please, say thank you.

Say Hello and say Goodbye.

And of course we can

say yes

and we can

say no

So these are just very simple.

Say Hello. Say Goodbye. Say Yes. Say No. Say please. And say thank you.

So we’ve got all of these 10 English collocations with say. Let me just run through them with you again just one more time:

say something
say nothing
say anything
say sorry
don’t say a word or I never say a word
say for sure
say for certain
say Goodbye
say Hello
say thank you
say please
say yes and say no

So as always, join me on my YouTube channel Learn English with Harry and visit me at www.englishlessonviaskype.com and I’ll catch up with you again soon.