Speaking: Говорити, Казати, Розмовляти, Сказати

English covers an enormous amount of ground with four small words — talk, speak, say, tell — and shuffles between them mostly by feel. Ukrainian draws sharper lines, and it draws them in a different place. The single biggest payoff of this page is realising that English "speak/talk/say/tell" maps onto four distinct Ukrainian verbs, sorted by two questions: is this an ongoing activity or a single utterance? and is it a two-way conversation or not? Говори́ти is "speak/talk" in the broad sense (and, crucially, the verb for speaking a language); розмовля́ти is "to converse, have a conversation with"; and the everyday "say / tell" is the aspect pair каза́ти / сказа́ти. Get these four sorted and a huge slice of everyday speech falls into place.

говори́ти — speak, talk (the broad verb), and speak a language

Говори́ти is the general verb for producing speech: speaking in general, talking, being able to talk at all. A child who has just learned to talk вже гово́рить; you tell someone don't talk like that — не говори́ так. Its single most important job for a learner is that "to speak a language" is говори́ти + the bare instrumental of the language — говори́ти украї́нською, англі́йською, по́льською — with no preposition. This is the instrumental of means: you speak by means of Ukrainian. (More on this pattern on the instrumental uses page.)

Watch the mobile stress: the infinitive and the я-form stress the ending (говори́ти, говорю́), but from the ти-form on, the stress jumps back onto the stem (гово́риш, гово́рить, гово́римо, гово́рите, гово́рять).

Говори́ти can also introduce reported speech (Він гово́рить, що…), but here it competes with каза́ти, and for a single past utterance the perfective сказа́в usually wins — see below. For the full paradigm of говори́ти across all tenses, see its verb-reference page.

розмовля́ти — to converse, have a conversation (+ з + instrumental)

Розмовля́ти zooms in on the two-way part: a conversation, talking with someone. The partner you talk with goes into з + instrumental — розмовля́ти з дру́гом "talk with a friend." It is a fully regular first-conjugation verb (розмовля́ю, розмовля́єш, розмовля́є, розмовля́ємо, розмовля́єте, розмовля́ють). It, too, can take a language in the bare instrumental — розмовля́ти украї́нською "to converse in Ukrainian" — overlapping with говори́ти, but розмовля́ти always carries the flavour of an actual exchange rather than the abstract ability.

The line between говори́ти and розмовля́ти: говори́ти can be one-directional ("he was talking and talking"), but розмовля́ти needs a partner, real or implied. "I was speaking to the audience" tilts toward говори́ти (one direction); "I was chatting with a colleague" is розмовля́ти (back-and-forth). In the very common colloquial register, балака́ти "to chat, natter" (informal) covers the same casual-conversation ground as розмовля́ти.

каза́ти / сказа́ти — say, tell (a specific utterance)

This is the verb most English learners reach for too rarely. When you report what someone said — a specific utterance, a piece of information passed to someone — you want каза́ти / сказа́ти, the everyday "say/tell." This is an aspect pair:

• каза́ти (imperfective) — say repeatedly, be in the act of saying, "keep saying";
• сказа́ти (perfective) — say once, a single completed utterance ("said", "told").

A vital detail: каза́ти has a ж-mutation all through its present tense — the з of the stem becomes ж in every person: кажу́, ка́жеш, ка́же, ка́жемо, ка́жете, ка́жуть. The perfective сказа́ти keeps the same mutation in its simple future (= present-form): скажу́, ска́жеш, ска́же, ска́жемо, ска́жете, ска́жуть "I will say," etc.

The person you tell — the addressee — goes in the dative, and the content follows as a що-clause (or, for commands, щоб + past): Він сказа́в *мені́, що прийде* "He told me that he'd come." There is no "to" preposition before the addressee; the dative does that job.

Notice the aspect at work in those examples: a one-off "he said" is сказа́в (perfective), but "mum always says" — a repeated, habitual saying — is ка́же (imperfective). This is the ordinary aspect contrast applied to speech.

Two more you'll meet: повідомля́ти and розповіда́ти

Two neighbours round out the field:

• повідомля́ти / повідо́мити "to inform, to notify, to report" (a touch formal) — used for passing on official information: повідо́мити про змі́ни "to report the changes."
• розповіда́ти / розпові́сти "to tell, to recount, to narrate" — the verb for telling a story, an account, a sequence of events, not just a single fact: розповіда́ти ка́зку "to tell a fairy-tale."

So "tell" splits, too: сказа́ти for a single piece of information delivered to someone (сказа́ти пра́вду), розпові́сти for telling a whole account (розпові́сти істо́рію).

Quick reference — sort by what you mean

Source-language comparison

For an English speaker, the trap is that English chooses among talk/speak/say/tell mostly by collocation and instinct, and none of those four lines up cleanly with a Ukrainian verb. Three habits to build. First, "speak a language" is говори́ти / розмовля́ти + bare instrumental — говорю́ украї́нською, never говорю́ украї́нську (accusative) and never with an English-style "in." Second, a single reported "he said / she told me" is the perfective сказа́в / сказа́ла, not говори́в — English speakers under-use the perfective here and the sentence sounds oddly drawn-out. Third, the person you tell is dative with no preposition: сказа́ти мені́, not сказа́ти до ме́не. For how these verbs feed into full reported-speech structures, see reported speech.

For a Russian speaker, the framework transfers (говори́ть / разгова́ривать / сказа́ть), but two things differ: Ukrainian standardly says розмовля́ти, not разгова́ривати, and the everyday "to speak a language" strongly prefers the instrumental (украї́нською) over Russian-style на украї́нській мо́ві — calquing the Russian "на + locative" is a common slip.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• говори́ти = speak / talk in the broad sense, and the verb for speaking a language (говорю́ украї́нською — bare instrumental, no preposition). Mind the mobile stress: говорю́ → гово́риш.
• розмовля́ти = have a conversation, talk with someone (+ з + instrumental); always two-way. Colloquial twin: балака́ти (informal).
• каза́ти / сказа́ти = the everyday "say/tell" aspect pair — note the ж-mutation (кажу́, ка́жеш…). Addressee in the dative, content as a що-clause.
• A single, finished "he said" is the perfective сказа́в; a habitual or in-progress "says" is the imperfective ка́же.
• розпові́сти / розповіда́ти = tell a story / recount; повідо́мити / повідомля́ти = inform, report (formal).