My favorite saying; Kotoba 20

くりっぞさん、ほめていただきまして、とてもうれしいです。伝えたいことを書くのは、難しいのですが、理解してもらえたとき、とてもうれしいです。わたしもたくさんの洋服はまだありませんが、くりっぞさんのように相手がハッピーになる言葉・洋服があれば素敵ですね。言葉って、そういうものな気がします。^^ 勉強になる添削をありがとうございます。まさに、"Yey !!!"です。

'Speak' and 'say' are slightly different. Speak is more about the act of talking (vocal/language ability), and say is more about communication (words/meaning).

1. Language ability (usually vocal, but can mean knowledge)
→ Speak [language]
* I speak English
* Can you speak much Japanese?
* How many languages do you speak?"

2. Talking (usually vocally) about something *when you report it as a topic/subject*
→ Speak (to [person]) (about [topic/subject])
* Did he speak to you?
* I spoke to my brother on the phone
* She spoke to me about her family
* Can you speak more slowly?
* We spoke about philosophy
* You can speak about whatever you want
(above, e.g. speak about Japan, languages, the weather...)

3. Communicating something specific *when you report it directly*
→ Say [something specific]
* She said it was OK
* What did you say?
* I said, "Your English is really good!"
* Could you say that again?
* You can say whatever you want
(above, e.g. say "Japan is great", "I like learning English", 'It's sunny today")

(Is it like 話す and 言う? I don't know...)

Hope this helps :)

ありがとうございます。手伝いましょうね。がんばって下さいます：）

Thank you very much for your wonderful explanations. I tried to explain about Japanese version, but I cannot do it in Japanese clearly like you did in English!!! Could you please see my new entry ? I wrote it in Japanese using your examples. ^^ 言葉って、母語として何気なく使っていると、いざ違いを説明するとなると難しいですね～。がんばります。日本語も。。。^^