Several writers have suggested that schizophrenic patients show unusual formal, or non-content, patterns of speech. For reasons of methodology, none of their findings is easy to interpret, and important questions remain unanswered. In particular, we do not know how schizophrenic patients behave in free conversion, how their behaviour with another patient may differ from their behaviour with a psychiatrically normal partner, whether they show consistency across encounters, nor whether patients recently admitted to hospital differ from chronic long-stay patients. The first study was designed to examine the first three questions, by observing recently admitted schizophrenic patients in two free dyadic conversations, one with a schizophrenic partner and one with a psychiatrically normal partner, and comparing them with three control groups; depressive patients; patients suffering from neurotic or personality disorders; and psychiatrically normal chest patients. Consistently across their two encounters, schizophrenic subjects were found to behave similarly for the most part to all three control groups. The second study went on to examine the fourth question, by comparing recently admitted and chronic long-stay schizophrenic patients, and revealed no differences between the two groups. The investigation is discussed in the light of previous research, and it is suggested that a critical variable may be the setting and nature of the encounter in which the schizophrenic patient takes part.