you could even go without using the said/asked/etc at the end over every dialog line; it’s pretty much understood that if you’re reading dialoge, when there is a new sentence, it’s a different speaker:

(Doctor to patient with teardrop tattoo under eye)

“That’s a pretty cool tattoo. Where’d you get it?”

“Uh… At this place I used to stay.”

“That wouldn’t be jail, would it?”

“Maybe…”

it makes your dialog more dynamic…now, try the same conversation adding all those “the doctor asked…the patient replied….the doctor wondered out loud…” makes for longer, tiresome reading.

rticulate, speak, state, talk, tell, utter, verbalize, vocalize air, discuss, express, give, look, sound, state, vent, ventilate, voice; advertise, announce, blaze, broadcast, declare, enunciate, proclaim, publicize, publish; affirm, allege, assert, aver, avouch, avow; breathe, drawl, gasp, mouth, murmur, shout, splutter, spout, whisper; couch, formulate, phrase, put, word; comment, remark

also, look at a thesorus…good luck