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Я говорю по-английски.

Я говорю по-английски.
I speak English.
From Lesson 18:Countries and languages (русский, английский)·Russian

Breakdown of Я говорю по-английски.

я
I
говорить
to speak, to talk
по-английски
in English

Questions & Answers about Я говорю по-английски.

Why is there a hyphen in по-английски?
When you talk about speaking a language in Russian, you don't use a regular noun or adjective. Instead, you use a special adverb form. The prefix по- and the ending -и are added to the language word, connected by a hyphen. It literally translates to something like 'in the English way'.
Could I just say Я говорю английский?
No, that would sound incorrect in Russian. Английский is an adjective used to describe objects, like английский язык (English language) or английский чай (English tea). Whenever you use the verb говорить (to speak) to say you speak a language, you must use the по-... form.
How do I know to use говорю instead of говорить?
Говорить is the dictionary form (the infinitive) meaning 'to speak'. Because the subject doing the action is я (I), you have to change the verb's ending to match. For this verb, you drop the -ить ending and add -ю to get говорю (I speak).
Is there a preposition missing here, like a word for 'in'?
No extra word is needed! While English says 'I speak English', Russian expresses this as an action done 'English-style'. The по- part of по-английски already does the job, so you don't need to add a separate preposition like в (in).

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