Translation of speak – English–Portuguese dictionary

speak

verb

/spiːk/ us

/spiːk/

spoke | spoken

SAY WORDS

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A1 [ I or T ]

to say words, to use the voice, or to have a conversation with someone

falar

Would you mind speaking more slowly, please? Você se importaria de falar mais devagar, por favor?

mainly UK "Can I speak to Dan please?" "Posso falar com o Dan, por favor?"

mainly US "Can I speak with Scott please?"

"Speaking." (= This is Scott.)

If he tells Julie what I said, I'll never speak to him again.

formal She spoke of her sadness over her father's death.

She speaks very highly of (= says good things about) the new director.

I can certainly come but I can't speak for my wife (= I can't tell you whether she can or not).

formal Who is going to speak for (= represent in a court of law) the accused?

He's old enough to speak for himself (= to say what he thinks).

I went with Ava - speaking of (= on the subject of) Ava, have you seen her new haircut?

We've been invited to Rachel and Jamie's wedding - speaking of which, did you know that they're moving to New York?

Speaking as (= with my experience as) a mother of four, I can tell you that children are exhausting.

Sue speaks with an American accent.

Why are you speaking in a whisper (= very quietly)?

For five whole minutes, neither of them spoke a word (= they both said nothing).

speak to someone

to tell someone that they have done something wrong

falar com alguém

The manager promised that she would speak to the person responsible.

More examplesFewer examples

Choking back my anger, I tried to speak calmly.
She cleared her throat nervously before she began to speak.
Can I speak to you confidentially?
"Can I speak to Isobel, please?" "She's still in bed. I'll just go and see if she's conscious yet."
It is considered bad manners in some cultures to speak with your mouth full of food.

LANGUAGE

A1 [ T ]

to (be able to) talk in a language

falar inglês, francês, alemão, etc.

He speaks fluent French. Ele fala francês fluente.

How many foreign languages do you speak? Quantas línguas estrangeiras você fala?

I couldn't speak a word of (= I did not know any) Spanish when I got there.

I couldn't figure out what language they were speaking. Eu não conseguia descobrir que língua eles estavam falando.

More examplesFewer examples

Unable to speak a word of the language, he communicated with his hands.
They speak a language akin to French.
Do you speak English?
I'd like to speak English fluently.
Do you speak Swedish ?

(Translation of speak from the Cambridge English-Portuguese Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translation of speak | GLOBAL English–Portuguese Dictionary

speak

verb

/spik/

past spoke | past participle spoken

[ intransitive ]

to talk

falar conversar

I’d like to speak to you for a minute. Eu queria falar com você por um minuto.

We spoke about our plans. Nós conversamos sobre os nossos planos.

Have you spoken with anyone about this? Você falou com alguém sobre isso?

They spoke of the fear they had felt. Eles falaram do medo que sentiram.

[ intransitive ]

to use your voice to say sth

falar

I was too upset to speak. Eu estava preocupada demais para falar.

[ transitive ]

to have the ability to talk a particular language

falar

Sophie speaks French, English and Swedish. Sophie fala francês, inglês e sueco.

broadly/generally speaking

in general

em geral

Generally speaking, I don’t like scary movies. Em geral, não gosto de filmes de terror.

so to speak

colloquial

indicates you have exaggerated or expressed sth in unusual terms

por assim dizer

They were “business partners,” so to speak. Eles eram “sócios”, por assim dizer.

Examples of speak

speak

The doctors also had contacted and spoken with a couple of my family members to get their feelings about it.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Roughly speaking, tree-width measures how close a graph is to being a tree.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Through this frame we look at the ' objective content ' made up by the grounded clause, which is strictly speaking not ' about ' the present as such.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

More than this, they show how literature sounds, how what is written and what is spoken are themselves informed and organised by music and noise.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

From ' 'thought and language' ' to ' 'thinking for speaking' '.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The little boy is speaking to a policeman.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Clearly, the normal rate of typing is lower than the usual rate of speaking but not unlike that of writing.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Generally speaking, the higher the resolution and the more levels per dot, the better the overall print quality.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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