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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Talk to versus Talk with
There's a lot of confusion regarding the proper use of the phrase "talk ___"
I always believed that as a verb, "talk" should be followed by "to."
For example: "I talked to my boss"
To me, "I talked with my boss" just sounds wrong. One may "talk with" an accent. One may "talk with" anger. But it sounds strange to "talk with" a person.
However, I do believe that when used as a noun, "Talk" can be followed by "with"
For example, "I had a talk with my boss."
Correct me if I'm wrong and tell me what you all think
I always believed that as a verb, "talk" should be followed by "to."
For example: "I talked to my boss"
To me, "I talked with my boss" just sounds wrong. One may "talk with" an accent. One may "talk with" anger. But it sounds strange to "talk with" a person.
However, I do believe that when used as a noun, "Talk" can be followed by "with"
For example, "I had a talk with my boss."
Correct me if I'm wrong and tell me what you all think
Top answer
Things like this are hard to pin down. I have bugaboos of the same sort, and sometimes I discover that I was laboring under a misapprehension. I sense the same thing you do about "talk with", but I think I am suffering from a displaced association with "visit with" and "meet with", the first of which is backwoods dialect to my ear, and the second, redundant.
- Things like this are hard to pin down.
- I have bugaboos of the same sort, and sometimes I discover that I was laboring under a misapprehension.
- I sense the same thing you do about "talk with", but I think I am suffering from a displaced association with "visit with" and "meet with", the first of which is backwoods dialect to my ear, and the second, redundant.
- It's always fun to search Shakespeare at a time like this,even though all that ever proves is that it was good English in 1600.
- I get 27 hits on "talk with", and that is a verbatim phrase search including partial words.
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2 Answers
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Things like this are hard to pin down. I have bugaboos of the same sort, and sometimes I discover that I was laboring under a misapprehension. I sense the same thing you do about "talk with", but I think I am suffering from a displaced association with "visit with" and "meet with", the first of which is backwoods dialect to my ear, and the second, redundant.
It's always fun to search Shak
It's always fun to search Shak
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enoonThings like this are hard to pin down.Prepositional application is not something that can be explained with hard rules. Much of how they are used is idiomatic and how they relate to the context. As far as "talk" and "speak" are concerned, I find this is the fool-proof rule: talk to / speak with.
I talked to the hotel manager yest
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