These exercises are about using the verb 'to talk ' combined with particles:
'to talk at' someone means to speak to someone without listening to them, there is no dialogue.
She just talks at me. She never lets me say a word.He doesn't talk to you, he just talks at you.
'to talk round' a problem or subject means that you avoid discussing the important point.
I feel we didn't get to the point, we talked around it for hours.She just talked round the problem but didn't say anything of importance.
'to talk back' means to reply rudely instead of being polite.
He was very polite and didn't talk back to his parents.Her children are not at all well brought up. They talk back to everyone.
'to talk down' means to reduce the importance of something, make something smaller than it is.
He is forever talking me down and making me feel useless.They talked down the success of our project as they were very jealous.
'to talk down to' someone is to speak to someone as if they were inferior to you.
She talked down to me as if I was a child.The teacher talks down to her students as if they were idiots.
'to talk someone into' means to persuade someone to do something.
He doesn't want to do it but I think I can talk him into it.She talked me into going with her even though I didn’t want to.
'to talk someone out of' means to persuade someone not to do something.
I talked her out of buying that car. She doesn't need to spend so much money.I wanted to do a parachute jump but he talked me out of it saying it was dangerous.
'to talk over' means to discuss a problem or situation before making a decision.
I want to talk things over with Freddie first. He always gives good advice.Can we talk it over? I think you are being too hasty.
'to talk through' means to help someone to understand something by explaining the details.
Can you talk me through the procedure? I'm not sure what I have to do.I'll talk you through it step by step as you do it.
'to talk up' means to speak enthusiastically about something so that it appears more interesting.
When you demonstrate the products, talk up the advantages of buying them.I'm sure he talked up my skills to his boss to make him sure he hired me.
