The word ‘talk‘ can mean many different things. As a verb, the meaning is to communicate using words.
For example:
- The children won’t stop talking.
- I need to talk to my boss tomorrow.
Talk is a regular verb. The past tense and past participle is talked. Click here to find out how to correctly pronounce ‘ed’ in the past tense.
HOT TIP – The ‘l’ in talk is not pronounced, it is a silent letter.
phrasal verbs with talk
Phrasal verbs with ‘talk’ include:
talk around/round/into
meaning – persuade
example – My boss won’t give me a pay rise, I need to talk him into it.
talk back
meaning – respond rudely
example – I got detention for talking back to the teacher.
talk down
meaning – make something sound less important or stop someone jumping from a high place
example – He talks down his role in the company but, I know he is very important.
talk down to
meaning – talk to someone in a superior way
example – No one likes our supervisor; he talks down to everyone.
talk out of
meaning – persuade someone not to do something
example – I’ve talked myself out of going to the pub. I need to save for my holiday.
talk over/through
meaning – discuss
example – We talked over some ideas for the business. Next year we will go global.
talk someone into
meaning – persuade someone to do something
example – We need to talk Alex into driving us to that rave in Bristol.
talk up
meaning – make something sound more important/better than it is
example – Molly has been talking up this band all month. I’m excited to see them live.
Did you know that many idiomatic expressions (idioms) in English also contain a lot of verbs? Just like phrasal verbs, idioms are a major part of the English language (slang in particular). They are used constantly amongst native English speakers and are handy to know and understand.
Now you’ve learnt all the phrasal verbs with talk, how about learning the idioms with talk too?
English courses online
If you’ve enjoyed this page, there are plenty more for you to look at. Click here to see the list of groups ready and waiting to be studied. Maybe you just like informal/slang English? Head to my useful tips and information section for loads more hints and tips to speak like a native.
If you really want to take your native speaking to the next level, how about taking a course? Here are some of the best ones:
