speak
v.v. to use your voice to say words, or to talk to someone about something.
v. to articulate words with the voice; to communicate verbally.
She can speak three languages.
I need to speak with my manager about the new project deadline.
Figuratively speaking, the company is at a crossroads, and the decisions made this quarter will determine its future direction for years to come.
From Middle English speke, speken (“to speak”), from Old English specan (“to speak”). This is usually taken to be an irregular alteration of earlier sprecan, spreocan (“to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic sprekan, from Proto-Germanic sprekaną (“to speak, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European spreg- (“to make a sound, utter, speak”). Finding this proposed loss of r from the stable cluster spr unparalleled, Hill instead sets up a different root, Proto-West Germanic spekan (“to negotiate”) from Proto-Indo-European bʰégʾ-e- (“to distribute”) with s-mobile, which collapsed in meaning with *sprekan ("to speak" < "to crackle, prattle") and so came to be seen as a free variant thereof. Cognates Cognate with Scots speak, speik (“to speak”), Saterland Frisian spreke (“to speak”), West Frisian sprekke (“to speak”), Central Franconian sjprèche (“to speak”), Dutch and Low German spreken (“to speak”), German sprechen (“to speak”), Luxembourgish spriechen (“to speak”), and also with Albanian shpreh (“to express, manifest, show”) through Indo-European.
The verb can be intransitive (often followed by 'to', 'with', or 'about') or transitive (taking an object like a language, e.g., 'speak English', or 'the truth').
Can I speak you for a minute?Can I speak to you for a minute?When 'speak' has a person as an indirect object, it requires a preposition like 'to' or 'with'.