*** Speak versus talk ***

Speak and talk have similar meanings but there are differences in the way we use the two words.

Both speak and talk suggest that a person is using his voice, or that two or more people are having a conversation.

We can say:

speak to someone
talk to someone
speak to someone about something
talk to someone about something.

‘Speak’ is more formal

One of the main differences is formality.
Speak is a little more formal than talk, and is often used in polite requests:

Hello, could I speak to David Thompson, please? [formal, on the telephone]
I’ve got a complaint: I want to speak to the manager. [formal, in a restaurant or shop]

Talk is a little less formal and is more common in spoken English:

What on earth are you talking about? = ‘you are not making sense’ or ‘you are not being truthful’.
I was talking to* Tom yesterday. He told me about his new house and job.

* Speak to and talk to are used more often than speak with / talk with

When to use ‘speak’

In some idioms and fixed phrases:

Speak your mind = to say exactly what you are thinking, in a direct way
Come on, speak your mind! We want to know what you’re thinking.
Speak up [often on the telephone]
Could you speak up please? I can’t hear you.
Generally speaking [when generalising]
Speak about / Speak in public [to address an audience, to make a speech]
The professor spoke about fair trade in Asia.

If a noun comes after speak, it must be a language.

We say:

speak English - NOT - talk English
speak Russian - NOT - talk Russian
speak a language - NOT - talk a language.

When to use ‘talk’

In the following examples, only talk is correct:

talk sense
I always listen to him: he talks a lot of sense.

talk nonsense
I agreed with you earlier but now you’re talking nonsense.

talk rubbish
He’s talking rubbish again. Don’t listen to him!

talk business [to discuss business things, to negotiate]
Let’s have some lunch, then we’ll talk business.

! Be careful – sometimes ‘talk’ and ‘speak’ are both wrong:

tell the truth - NOT - speak the truth or talk the truth
tell a lie - NOT - speak a lie or talk a lie
tell a story - NOT - speak a story or talk a story.