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What changes, in these phrases? The change is the し for the せ. A friend told me that the second one was better for saying I speak little japanese.

私は少し日本語を話します。

私は少し日本語を話せます。

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Jaume
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    `A friend told me that the second one was better for saying I speak little japanese` >> "I speak little Japanese" (w/o "a") would be 私は日本語がほとんど話せません, whereas 私は少し日本語を話せます would be "I can speak **a** little Japanese" – Chocolate Jul 01 '16 at 22:58

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Just copied & pasted from my half-year-old answer (though the question itself isn't a duplicate):

Though I translated 日本語を話す into "speak Japanese", the verb doesn't have "be able to speak" sense, so every time you have to explicitly use potential form when you question about ability.

日本語が話せますか？ Do you speak Japanese?

compared to:

日本語を話しますか？ Are you going to speak Japanese?

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broccoli facemask
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私は少し日本語を話します。

I will speak a little Japanese. (starting now)

私は少し日本語を話せます。

I can speak a little Japanese. (the ability to speak)

On a side note, a quick grammar fix (leaving word order as is)

私は少し日本語が話せます。

paullb
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    Although you wrote that it's a grammar fix, native speakers frequently use both が and を. Some discussion: http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/cg/lt/rb/599/599pdf/higasiya.pdf –  Jul 16 '15 at 17:18
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    In the [Google Japanese Web N-gram](https://catalog.ldc.upenn.edu/LDC2009T08) corpus, I find 2889 results for 日本語**が**話せます, and 1690 results for 日本語**を**話せます. –  Jul 16 '15 at 17:21
  • @snailboat Thanks for that. I'll have a read. – paullb Jul 17 '15 at 02:19
  • Why is が better? – Jaume Jul 24 '15 at 05:43
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The second one is the potential form of the verb. I can speak a little Japanese. Although when using the potential, が is usually preferred over を.

日本語が話せます

Here are some references on the potential form.

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istrasci
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