In English there are also many verbs that can be used ;) perfective - imperfective - description 1. powiedzieć - mówić - these are the basic verbs for speaking/talking. "Powiedzieć" is used basically in past or future tenses: powiedziałam Ci coś - I told you something. "Mówić" is more like speak or tell. Mówię po polsku - I speak Polish. It can be used also like tell: Mówię Ci, że... - I'm telling you that... 2. porozmawiać - rozmawiać - means to talk to each other, to converse. Used very often. Możemy porozmawiać? - Can we talk? Nie chcę o tym rozmawiać - I don't want to talk about it. 3. przemówić - przemawiać - means to talk in public, in front of a crowd, to make a speech. And yes, there are some others with similar meanings. Like: opowiedzieć - opowiadać - to tell a story przedyskutować - dyskutować - to discuss pogadać - gadać - colloquial, used often, it's the same as rozmawiać, but don't use it in formal situations :)

Very good answer by Anna. To make thing harder to remember, let me add "pomówić" = porozmawiać. "Muszę z Tobą pomówić". I was trying to match these to English words, but unfortunatelly it's not 1 to 1 :-) If I understand correctly, the two words for "mówić" - say / tell - differ mostly by the structure (if you use "tell" you have to mention a recipient), but I think they mean both powiedzieć / mówić komuś and opowiedzieć / opowiadać coś komuś speak to someone - (po)rozmawiać z kimś discuss - omówić, (prze)dyskutować And of course there's a number of other words that have "mówić" in it, but mean something else: wymówić - pronounce zamówić - order (Zamówiłam trampki na Allegro) namówić - convince / persuade, referring to the future (Namówił brata żeby pojechać do kina) wmówić - convince / persuade, with bad connotation (Wmówił bratu, że to on zbił wazon) odmówić - refuse

I'm going to show you how its work insted to explain what kinda rules are here. Mówić= I will start to speak(mowić) after you turn back my money. I don't want to speak(mowić) about this it's weird topic for me. Rozmawiać= We wont speak(rozmawiać)(mowić) about this today. Powiedzieć= I'd like to tell(powiedzieć) some thing. Przemówić= You are so stubborn it's hard to (przemówić) explain, make it clear, say that what you do is not corect... Przemówienie= official announcement. Król ma przemówić do ludzi zebranych tutaj= The king (ma przemówić) to people gathered here.

I really understand your pain. Everyone has the same issues with such po/prze/za/pod+verb phrases. Like in German, one has to learn every word separately. You just have to read Polish phrases all the time. I don't see any alternative to this.