verbs - What is the difference between "speaking" and "talking"?


It seems more politically correct to say that someone is speaking rather than talking.


What is the definitive difference between these terms?



Answer



To me, it's not a matter of gentleness or political correctness. I find that speak connotes more care or intelligibility. That is, there are meaningful words and the words are clear. It could also be more formal. Since talk happens to have more uses (for example, "talk someone into" doing something, "have a talk", "give a talk", etc.), it also feels like a muddier term to me. There is the phrase "talking without saying anything", which implies idle chatter and not a lot of meaning.


So for me, speak is more formal and more precise than talk. (That applies both to the thing being described by speak or talk as well as the person using the term speak or talk.)


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