speak about & talk about

[eluchnab]

Can anyone tell me what the diffrence is, if any, between "speak about" and "talk about"?

[ukejka]

speak about - ktos o czyms mowi np w tv, albo do innych osob, ale jednostronnie, tzn on mowi , reszta go slucha.

talk about - ktos o czyms rozmawia, tzn nastepuje wymiana zdan pomiedzy osobami.

[russh]

One can be used in substitution of the other in the above situation.

Speak or talk about; speak or talk to; speak or talk with etc.

Tell a story (not speak a story)
Speak a language (not tell a language)

[usenetposts]

"Speak" and "tell" function as a rare aspectival pair in a language which only
has a vestige of aspect, unlike Polish, where every verb has an aspectival pair.

"Speak" is the imperfective aspect. It doesn't matter whether you get to the
end of the information. "He spoke to us about the weather" doesn't tell us
whether he imparted the fullness of information or not. "He told us about the
weather" implies that he got to the end of the important information about the
weather. He was not just blathering on aimlessly about it, but he imparted a
salient fact about it.

Now "Talking" is one step to the left of speaking. "He talked to us about the
weather" is very close to "he spoke to us" but the idea here is even less
perfective than speaking. The emphasis is on the idea of talking rather than on
the purpose, which is to impart information. One would prefer "he talked to us
about the weather" in situations where you want to emphasise that it was an
oral process, rather than a written one.