“Speak” is used for languages, speeches and formal situations; “talk” means to have a conversation. So we say “speak English” and “speak at a conference”, but “talk to a friend” and “talk about the weekend”.
speak or talk — can you pick the right one?
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speak + language; speak at + event; speak to + person (formal); talk to/with + person; talk about + topic
- Our new colleague speaks Spanish and a little Portuguese.
- Next month our director will speak at a conference in Berlin.
- We talked about our holiday plans over dinner last night.
What changed
First versionMy daughter talks English better than I do.
RevisionMy daughter speaks English better than I do.
Both verbs describe using words, but knowing a language is expressed with “speak”, while “talk” describes the conversation itself. The sentence is about someone's level of English, so it needs “speaks”.
“Speak English” means to know English, while “speak in English” means to use it in a particular situation: “Let's speak in English for the rest of the lesson.” “Speak on English” is wrong: the preposition here is “in”.
Your turn
Anna has lived in Seoul for years, so she ___ Korean quite well.
Show the answer
speaks — The sentence is about knowing a language, and the name of a language goes with “speak”. “Talk” describes a conversation, so “talks Korean” sounds wrong.
Write about someone who knows several languages. Name the languages and say what you usually talk about with this person.
My cousin speaks German and Turkish, and we usually talk about football and her work in Hamburg.
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