「tell、talk、speak、say」の違い (part 2)

I was talking about the difference between these words in my last post. You might want to read it to catch up with this series.

We usually don't use a noun directly after "talk". Instead, we put a preposition after it.

◯ I talked with my friend yesterday. <- "with" feels more like a discussion

◯ I talked to my friend yesterday. <- "to" sounds like brief contact, or sometimes one-way contact

◯ We talked about the difference between English schools. <- use "about" to describe the content

When you want to emphasize the act of speech, don't use "talk". Use "speak" instead.

× I talked some Chinese yesterday.

◯ I spoke some Chinese yesterday.

When I got in the elevator two nights ago, a woman I didn't know started talking to me suddenly. I couldn't hear what she was saying at first because I was listening to music on my headphones. I could tell that she had been drinking (see the last post for more about "tell") because of the strong smell of alcohol. We talked about the snow that fell that morning, and then I told her "good night" when she got off the elevator on her floor.

I told you that I'd tell you what the photo in the last post was of. It's a lamp as seen between someone's fingers. This photo is of a meal I cooked last month, I think. I like to talk about what I cook, but this post is already too long. More in the next post.