verb · neutral
speak
/spiːk/SPEAK
to say something or express ideas by talking, often in a more formal way
Examples
“She will speak at the conference about urban planning.”
“Can you speak up? I can't hear you.”
“He speaks three languages fluently.”
Band 8 sentence
“In my presentation I spoke about the social impact of rapid urbanisation and supported each point with recent empirical studies.”
Collocations
- speak up
- speak to an audience
- speak fluent(ly) English
Word family
Common mistakes
I need to talk at the conference.→I need to speak at the conference.
She spoke about me.→She spoke to me.
He says at the meeting.→He spoke at the meeting.
Say it for a higher band
5talk→6say→7+speak
Synonyms
talk
say
Easily confused
talk
“They talked for hours about their plans.”
say
“She said that she would arrive at seven.”
tell
“He told me the truth about the incident.”
Related words
Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.
In Irregular forms
Learn it with its set