On the other hand, with 'tell' we need to use an object, a person who we tell the information to. (The direct speech for this is "I've already eaten".) 2: TELL
The basic verb pattern for using 'say' for reported speech is: say + (that) + clause Let's look first at the verbs we've already talked about. The meaning is exactly the same if you use 'that' or if you don't use 'that'.) 1: SAY I've put it in brackets () to show that it's optional.
(As I'm sure you know, we can often choose if we want to use 'that' or not in English. Some of these verbs look a bit more complicated to use than 'say' and 'tell', but it's just a question of getting to know the verb patterns (or verb structures). However, we can also use many other verbs to report what someone said, like 'promise', 'warn', 'advise' and 'recommend'. In the page about reported speech, we talked about how to change direct speech ("I love coffee") into reported speech (Seonaid said that she loved coffee), using the verbs 'say', 'tell' and 'ask'.
Try an exercise about reporting verbs here.
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