SPEAK vs TALK Whats the Difference Learn English Grammar
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Hi everybody, my name is Alisha.
Welcome back to EnglishClass101.com’s Youtube
channel.
Today I’m going to talk about the difference
between “speak” and “talk,” two commonly
confused verbs.
So, let’s get started!
Okay, the first verb I want to talk about
is the verb “talk.”
we use “talk” in casual speech in everyday
conversations, if you want to talk about a
simple topic or a casual discussion with friends,
or you just want to report a conversation
that happened, or a discussion that happened,
you can use “talk” to explain this simply
and casually.
In most everyday conversations, I use “talk,”
you’ll hear “talk” a lot when you are listening
to conversations about discussions on the
phone, we use it to explain phone conversations
a lot ,we use it to explain simple meetings
with people, friendly interactions over coffee,
for example.
“Talk” is used in most everyday situation.
So if you’re reporting on something that’s
pretty casual, you should use the word “talk”
to explain that.
Also, if the person you are talking to is
not someone who you have a professional relationship
with, it’s pretty good to use “talk” in that
case; if you use “speak,” you might sound
a little too formal, we’re going to talk about
this in just a moment, though.
So please try to keep in mind that “talk”
should be used in everyday conversations to
report everyday conversations, and in more
casual situations.
Okay we can also use “talk,” the verb “talk”
with “to” or “with.”
By this I mean we can say, I want to “talk”
to someone, or I want to “talk” with someone.
These are, for me, very very similar, we use
them in very similar ways.
If you want to be extremely specific, I would
say that perhaps there is a small nuance of
a difference between “talk to” and “talk
with.”
If I say I want to “talk to” someone, maybe,
it could be a more one-sided conversation,
like, I want to talk to my friend; I expect
my friend is going to talk to me as well.
But I feel like that has a little more of
a one-sided conversation feel than using “talk
with,” if I say, I want to talk with my
friend, I want to talk with you, about it,
“with,” to me, sounds a little bit more
like doing something together with someone
else.
So again, this is a very very small difference
and perhaps this is just my style and how
I like to use these words, but for the most
part we can use them interchangeably, we can
use them in the same way and you’re not going
to really have any communication problems
depending on the words you choose.
But just for your information, this is how
I sometimes use “to” and “with” with
the verb “talk,” and with “speak,” too,
as I’ll explain later.
Okay, finally, about conjugations for the
verb “talk.”
To make the past tense of the verb “talk,”
talk is…
I’m sorry, start again.
Okay, finally, about conjugations with the
verb “talk.”
To conjugate the verb “talk” into the past
tense and the past participle, we simply add
ED to the end of the verb.
So “talk” becomes “talked;” this makes
past tense and past participle.
So a very easy conjugation for the verb “talk.”
So we’re going to use this in some example
sentences later, let’s take a look, though,
at the verb “speak.”
Okay, so we talked about how the verb “talk”
is used in more casual situations, everyday
conversations, everyday discussions.
“Speak,” however, is used in more formal
situations.
If you want to create a more formal nuance
or to have a more formal tone when you speak
with someone, use the verb “speak.”
So I just used the verb “speak” to sound a
little bit more formal in this explanation,
for example.
If you would like to sound a little more formal,
try using the verb “speak” instead of the
verb “talk.”
This is really useful in business situations,
at work, you can use this in business emails,
as well, or in any kind of writing where you
would like to sound a little more formal.
This is more polite than, as you might have
guessed so, ”talk” has a more casual nuance,
“speak” has a more formal nuance about it.
As with “talk,” we can use this with “to”
or “with,” so “speak to” someone or
“speak with” someone.
I want to speak to my boss.
I want to speak with my boss.
Like I talked about, with “talk,” we can
use the two pretty much in the same way, very
very similarly, I would say there’s a very
small nuance again.
“Talk to” might sound a little bit more
one-sided, one person is reporting information,
perhaps, and “with” perhaps sounds more
like an exchange of information.
But again, this is a very small difference
in perhaps just a way that I think about how
to use “to” and “with” with these
verbs, but you can use them essentially in
the same way.
“Speak to” or “speak with” someone.
Finally, there’s one other key difference
between “speak” and “talk,” and that is
about languages.
When you are explaining your language ability,
for example, I speak English, I speak Japanese,
I don’t speak Chinese.
We should always use the verb “speak,” please
don’t use the verb “talk” to explain your
language abilities.
So a sentence like, I talk French is not correct,
please use I speak French.
“Speak” is the correct verb to talk about
your language abilities or to talk about your
inability, as well, so please be careful there.
Lastly, a couple conjugation points about
this verb then.
So “speak” in the past tense, “speak” is an
irregular verb, “speak” becomes “spoke”
in the past tense, spoke.
So please be careful here, also, to make the
past participle form, “speak” becomes “spoken.”
Have you spoken to someone?
I’ve never spoken with someone.
So there are two conjugations we need to consider
for today’s practice, spoke and spoken, past
tense and past participle tense.
Okay, so now that we reviewed a couple points
about the difference between “talk” and “speak,”
let’s take a look at a few examples sentences,
and maybe we can decide which verb is a better
choice in each of these.
Okay, first one, he _______ to his manager.
Our hint word here is the word “manager,”
this implies it’s a work situation so it’s
probably a good idea to sound a little more
formal, let’s use spoke, past tense.
He spoke to his manager.
Of course, you could say he speaks to his
manager, but we don’t have much other information
here so maybe a simple sentence, he spoke
to his manager.
Nice.
Let’s see, the next one, you should _______
to your parents.
So here, we have parents, and also “you
should,” this kind of gives us the feeling
that this sentence is maybe a casual advice
situation, so how about “talk,” it sounds
more casual, so “talk” sounds better.
You should talk to your parents.
Again, “talk with” your parents is also
okay here.
Alright, let’s look at the next sentence.
Haven’t they _______ to you about this?
So here, we have “haven’t,” “have
not.”
a negative form here, haven’t they _______
to you about this?
In this sentence, there’s no clear hint word,
is it a casual situation, is it a formal situation?
So in a sentence like this, because we don’t
have enough information about the situation,
both “talk” and “speak” are actually okay,
but we do need to conjugate the verb correctly,
so that it matches this “haven’t” at
the beginning of the sentence.
So we can say, haven’t they talked to you?
Or, haven’t they spoken to you about this?
Both are correct in this case.
Haven’t they talked to you?
Haven’t they spoken to you?
It just changes the level of formality of
the sentence.
Okay, let’s take a look at the next one.
I really wanted to _______ to you.
Again, it’s a little bit difficult to determine,
is this a formal situation or a casual situation?
I would guess, I’ve included the word “really”
here, typically “really” is only used
in casual situations, or it’s better to use
a word like “really” in less formal situation,
so I think that is a better choice here.
I really wanted to talk to you.
Hmm, nice.
Alright, next one.
She is _______ with clients at the moment.
So here the hint is “clients,” indicating
it’s a business situation or a more formal
situation, and here we have the grammar “she
is,” this implies progressive or a continuous
grammar sentence, so she’s _______ clients
gives us the hint it’s more formal, let’s
use “speak,” but again, to change it to
the progressive form, she’s speaking with
clients at the moment.
It sounds nice.
Okay, let’s look at the next sentence then.
What were they _______ with that guy about?
Okay, so here I’ve used “with,” again,
we can use “to” or “with” but I’ve
included “guy” as a hint word here; “guy”
sounds a little bit more casual, we use “guy”
in, maybe, more casual discussion everyday
discussions so we probably want to use “talk”
in this case, a more casual choice.
Here, we see it’s past, what “were” they
_______ with that guy about?
But we know this should be a past progressive
tense sentence, too.
What were they, just indicates something continuing,
what were they talking with that guy about?
What were they talking with that guy about?
Great.
Alright, next one.
You guys should have _______ about it last
week.
Again, we see this “you guys,” “you
guys” implying something more casual.
You guys should have, so again, this is probably
a sentence where we need to use the verb “talk”
because it’s a more casual situation.
We could use the verb “speak” if you like,
but again it’s going to sound a little more
formal.
Here we have “you guys” which sounds casual,
so mixing casual and formal might sound a
little strange, so therefore, to match our
grammar, you guys should have talked about
it last week, is the nice sentence here.
Okay, let’s look at the last one then.
She’s never _______ to me.
So “she’s,” this is an interesting contraction,
be careful, it’s not “she is never,” “never”
is a big hint here, yeah, we know that “never,”
we use “never” a lot in present perfect
tense sentences, so “she’s” here does
not mean “she is,” instead this is the
contracted form of “she has.”
So here, she has never _______ to me.
In this sentence, we don’t know if it’s a
casual or a formal expression so we can choose
either verb, so she has never talked to me
is correct, or she has never spoken to me,
she’s never talked to me, she’s never spoken
to me, both are correct, just depending on
the situation and depending on the nuance
you would like to communicate, you can choose
the better form or the better verb accordingly.
So these are a few cases where we use “speak”
and “talk,” it might be a good idea to choose
one or the other but I would recommend just
keep in mind, if you want to sound more formal,
please choose the verb “speak,” if you want
to sound a little more casual, use the verb
“talk.”
In most cases, we will use the verb “talk,”
but maybe at work, it’s a good idea to use
“speak” instead.
Also, don’t forget to use “speak” to talk
about your language abilities, too.
Okay, so those are a few points about when
to use “speak” and “talk.”
If you have any questions, or if you want
to try to make an example sentence, give it
a try in the comment section below this video.
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