说话
shuō huà
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 說話
To talk: to use your voice to say things, or to have a conversation. Its object, 话 'words', is built in, so 'to speak Chinese' is 说汉语, never 说话汉语. Talking with someone is 和他说话, and the parts can split: 说了很多话 'talked a lot'.
Nói, nói chuyện: cất tiếng nói ra, hoặc trò chuyện với ai. Tân ngữ 话 (lời) đã nằm sẵn trong từ, nên “nói tiếng Trung” là 说汉语, không phải 说话汉语. Nói chuyện với ai là 和他说话; hai phần có thể tách ra: 说了很多话 (nói rất nhiều).
VerbRegister: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 064 (2026-11-14). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 说/說 = thuyết · No Vietnamese entry is linked as its twin; the Hán-Việt reading is given character by character. Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Common questions
What does “说话” mean?
To talk: to use your voice to say things, or to have a conversation. Its object, 话 'words', is built in, so 'to speak Chinese' is 说汉语, never 说话汉语. Talking with someone is 和他说话, and the parts can split: 说了很多话 'talked a lot'. Literally: speak words
Is “说话” formal or informal?
说话 is generally neutral.