Do you know the difference between the Italian verbs “parlare” and “dire”? Are they interchangable? No, they are not, and they often create confusion in students approaching Italian, so if you belong to this group then read this post and find out more 🙂
1) Parlare means expressing oneself in a general and/or metaphorical way. As a consequence we could say that it is like the English “to speak”.
2) Dire on the other hand has a meaning that has to do with the moment, the meaning is more immediate. It is a speech act, an explanation, an answer, etc. To express in the moment, mostly as a response to a stymulus, similiar to the English “to say”.
Let me give you some examples:
– Ti dico una cosa interessante;
– Ti dico tutto;
– Cosa stai dicendo?
vs.
– Parlo bene l’italiano;
– Maria parla velocemente;
– Carlo parla con gli amici.
