Talk to vs talk with

[emsr2d2]

Hi, just a quick question to other ESL teachers here.

Do you generally teach "to talk to" or "to talk with"? Most of my students have picked up a lot of their English from American TV, films or visits to the USA and consequently seem to say "talk with" a lot.

As a British English native speaker, I use "to talk to" (although I frequently explain the expression "The company is in talks with various manufacturers....")

Do you see talk to/with as a British/American difference? I generally teach both but am currently working on an exercise using prepositions and I really only want one possible correct answer for each question.

Thanks.

[Neillythere]

Hi emsr2d2

As an NES, but not a teacher, I would personnaly use:

"talk to" in a case where I did most of the talking, as in: "I'll have to talk to him (a naughty child) about it.

"talk with" where I needed to discuss something with the other person.

It's just my way, teachers may have a different view.

Hope this helps

Regards
NT

[Raymott]

I generally teach both but am currently working on an exercise using prepositions and I really only want one possible correct answer for each question.

Thanks.

I say both.
If you want to set questions with only one answer, why not avoid verbs like 'talk' that you know have more than one answer?

[ltsang]

It depends on what you are trying to use. Like for example I want to talk to my teacher tomorrow about a grade at school. I want to talk with a student about my grade.

[Mzungu39]

I was taught to say 'talk to', and that 'talk with' is an informal usage.
However I have noticed that only 'with' is used when talk is used as a noun as in the example above (talks with manufacturers) or I'd like to have a talk with you.


I'm not a native. I may be wrong.