I.
noun
1 a conversation
ADJECTIVE
▪ brief , little ( often ironic ), short
▪
I will have to have a little ~ with that young lady (= tell her that I disapprove of sth) .
▪ good , long , serious
▪ heart-to-heart
VERB + TALK
▪ have
TALK + NOUN
▪ show ( esp. AmE )
▪ radio ( esp. AmE )
PREPOSITION
▪ ~ about
▪
I enjoyed our ~ about the old days.
▪ ~ with
▪
I need to have a heart-to-heart ~ with her.
2 talking
ADJECTIVE
▪ excited
▪
There was excited ~ of emigrating to America.
▪ crazy ( esp. AmE ), wild
▪
There is wild ~ of her breaking the world record soon.
▪ careless ( esp. BrE ), idle , loose
▪ fighting ( BrE ), tough
▪ war
▪
The US authorities have increased the war ~.
▪ straight
▪
She likes straight ~ and hates hypocrites.
▪ double
▪
The president's true agenda was hidden in political double ~.
▪ open
▪
There is open ~ of a leadership challenge.
▪ public
▪
There has been much public ~ about bilingual education.
▪ dirty
▪
the crusade against dirty ~ on TV
▪ trash (= a way of talking intended to insult sb and make them feel less confident) ( AmE , informal )
▪ sweet (= trying to persuade sb to do sth by praising them and telling them things they like to hear)
▪ cheap , empty , mere
▪
The chairman's boasts about future profits were just cheap ~.
▪ big , fancy ( esp. AmE ), fine ( ironic )
▪
What all the fine ~ came down to was hard cash.
▪ baby
▪
I never used baby ~ to my little girl.
▪ girl
▪
We can have some girl ~ until Joe gets here.
▪ pillow
▪
the pillow ~ of lovers
▪ shop
▪
Don't you get enough shop ~ at work?
VERB + TALK
▪ hear
▪
You often hear ~ of the north-south divide.
TALK + VERB
▪ turn to sth
▪
Talk turned to money and tempers began to fray.
PREPOSITION
▪ ~ about/of
▪
All this ~ of the boss resigning is nonsense!
PHRASES
▪ be all ~
▪
He's all ~. He's too scared to do anything.
▪ be just ~
▪
‘You think it's just ~?’ ‘No, I think it's true.’
▪ for all the ~ of sth
▪
For all their ~ of equality, the boys ended up not doing any cooking.
▪ (to exchange/make) small ~ (= to talk politely about unimportant things)
▪
He was never very good at making small ~ with her parents.
3 ( also talks ) discussions between official groups
ADJECTIVE
▪ lengthy ( esp. BrE )
▪ high-level , top-level
▪ informal
▪ formal , official
▪ private , secret
▪ direct , face-to-face
▪ wide-ranging
▪ all-party ( BrE ), etc.
▪
all-party ~s in Northern Ireland
▪ bilateral , multilateral , round-table ( esp. BrE )
▪ global ( esp. AmE )
▪ fresh ( esp. BrE ), further
▪ crisis , emergency , urgent (all esp. BrE )
▪ exploratory ( esp. BrE ), preliminary
▪ political
▪ arms ( esp. BrE ), peace
▪ merger , pay ( BrE ), trade
… OF TALKS
▪ round
▪
A further round of ~s is expected in March.
VERB + TALK
▪ conduct , have , hold
▪
The two governments held secret ~s on the nuclear threat.
▪ broker , host
▪ attend , enter
▪ begin , initiate , open , start
▪ continue
▪ break off , pull out of , walk out of
▪
The union has broken off ~s with the management.
▪ cancel , end , suspend
▪ reopen , restart , resume
TALK + VERB
▪ be scheduled
▪
Talks were scheduled for Rome the following month.
▪ take place
▪
The peace ~s will take place in Cairo.
▪ begin , open ( esp. BrE ), start
▪ end
▪ continue , go on
▪ resume
▪ be aimed at sth , be designed to ( esp. BrE )
▪
the latest round of ~s aimed at ending the civil war
▪ centre/center on sth , concentrate on sth , cover sth , deal with sth , focus on sth
▪
The ~s centred on bilateral trade.
▪ produce sth
▪
Talks produced agreement on an end to the occupation.
▪ be deadlocked ( esp. BrE ), break down , collapse , fail , founder ( esp. BrE ), stall ( esp. BrE )
▪
The ~s remain deadlocked over spending plans.
▪
The ~s foundered on the issue of compensation.
PREPOSITION
▪ during ~
▪
The agreement was concluded during ~s in Beijing.
▪ in ~
▪
He is currently in ~s with two football clubs.
▪ ~ about , ~ on , ~ over
▪
Talks are being held over the political future of the province.
▪ ~ between
▪
the failure of ~s between the two communities
▪ ~ with
▪
The delegation arrived for ~s with their government.
4 lecture
ADJECTIVE
▪ entertaining ( esp. BrE ), informative ( esp. BrE ), interesting
▪ introductory ( esp. BrE )
▪ brief , short
▪ chalk ( AmE ), motivational , pep , team ( esp. BrE )
▪ radio , television , TV
▪ illustrated ( BrE )
▪
She gave an illustrated ~ on Roman architecture.
VERB + TALK
▪ deliver , give , present
▪ begin
▪ end
▪
Let me end my ~ with a prediction.
▪ attend , go to
TALK + VERB
▪ be entitled sth , be titled sth ( esp. AmE )
▪
She gave a very entertaining ~ entitled ‘My life and hard times’.
PREPOSITION
▪ ~ about , ~ on
▪
Did you go to the ~ on Peru?
II.
verb
ADVERB
▪ loudly
▪ quietly , softly
▪ at length
▪ constantly , continuously , endlessly , incessantly , non-stop
▪ briefly
▪ candidly , freely , openly
▪
She ~ed quite freely about her work.
▪ privately , publicly
▪ exclusively
▪
Bruce Springsteen has agreed to ~ exclusively to our reporter about his life.
▪ directly
▪
I think you'd better ~ directly to my manager.
▪ animatedly , enthusiastically , excitedly
▪ specifically
▪ vaguely
▪
He had ~ed vaguely of going to work in Japan.
▪ casually
▪ politely
▪ earnestly , seriously
▪
a group of students ~ing earnestly
▪ sensibly
▪
Let's ~ sensibly about this.
▪ wildly
VERB + TALK
▪ be able to , can
▪
I can't ~ about it just now.
▪ need to , want to
▪
I need to ~ to you.
▪ begin to
▪ be easy to
▪
He was so easy to ~ to.
▪ be difficult to , be hard to
▪ hear sb , listen to sb , overhear sb
▪
I loved to hear him ~ about the old days.
▪ make sb
▪
The police questioned him for four hours, trying to make him ~.
▪ let sb
▪
Just shut up and let me ~ for a minute.
PREPOSITION
▪ about
▪
All they ~ about is clothes.
▪ of ( formal )
▪
We often ~ed of the war.
▪
Talking of Joe, I met his new boyfriend last week. ( BrE )
▪ to
▪
I'll ~ to Mario this afternoon.
▪ with
▪
I've ~ed with him on the telephone.
PHRASES
▪ start ~ing , stop ~ing
▪ ~ a good game ( AmE )
▪
The senior managers ~ a good game about customer relations ( = they say the right things ), but really they don't care about the customer.
▪ ~ the ~ ( esp. AmE )
▪
You can ~ the talk, but can you walk the walk ( = can you do what you say )?
Talk is used with these nouns as the object: ↑ business , ↑ nonsense , ↑ politics , ↑ rubbish , ↑ sense , ↑ trash , ↑ way