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Victorycountry Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
Talk of/talk about
Hi,
I just want to make sure whether what I undersood on "talk of" and "talk about" is correct.
"talk of" and "talk about", are they interchangeable?
As far as what I understood from grammar books, they are very much same semantically.
But still, I am not 100% sure.
Example:
A: What are you talking about? ( I don't think I heard someone says "what are you talking of?" except for in fiction books)
B: I am talking of/about (I am pretty sure that you can choose either "of" or "about") the President!
A: Are you too? Many people are accusing him of causing unnessary wars.
(Can you replace the "of" in "accuse someone of sth" by "about"?, as far as I understood you can not ... because "accuse of" is a fixed phrase)
Thank you in advance.
I just want to make sure whether what I undersood on "talk of" and "talk about" is correct.
"talk of" and "talk about", are they interchangeable?
As far as what I understood from grammar books, they are very much same semantically.
But still, I am not 100% sure.
Example:
A: What are you talking about? ( I don't think I heard someone says "what are you talking of?" except for in fiction books)
B: I am talking of/about (I am pretty sure that you can choose either "of" or "about") the President!
A: Are you too? Many people are accusing him of causing unnessary wars.
(Can you replace the "of" in "accuse someone of sth" by "about"?, as far as I understood you can not ... because "accuse of" is a fixed phrase)
Thank you in advance.
Top answer
'Talk of', 'talk about', 'accuse of'-- they are all fixed phrases, VC, in that, as with many verbs, they take certain particles to convey certain meanings. 'Talk of' and 'talk about' are often used interchangeably, and can carry the same meaning; but in other situations, they are differentiated in this way: 'Talk of' suggests a brief conversation on the general topic. ), or at least talking a lot about it.
- 'Talk of', 'talk about', 'accuse of'-- they are all fixed phrases, VC, in that, as with many verbs, they take certain particles to convey certain meanings.
- 'Talk of' and 'talk about' are often used interchangeably, and can carry the same meaning; but in other situations, they are differentiated in this way: 'Talk of' suggests a brief conversation on the general topic.
- ), or at least talking a lot about it.
- ', the natural response would be 'I am talking about the President'.
- The differences are indeed often slight, however.
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1 Answers
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'Talk of', 'talk about', 'accuse of'-- they are all fixed phrases, VC, in that, as with many verbs, they take certain particles to convey certain meanings.
'Talk of' and 'talk about' are often used interchangeably, and can carry the same meaning; but in other situations, they are differentiated in this way:
'Talk of' suggests a brief conversation on the general topic. If Arnol
'Talk of' and 'talk about' are often used interchangeably, and can carry the same meaning; but in other situations, they are differentiated in this way:
'Talk of' suggests a brief conversation on the general topic. If Arnol
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