talk up meaning and examples

Meaning

• Talk up means to speak positively about someone or something in order to promote, praise, or make it seem more important or impressive.
• It can also mean to encourage discussion of a topic.

Grammar and Usage

• Part of speech: phrasal verb
• Structure: talk up + noun/pronoun
• Used in both formal and informal contexts.
• Transitive verb (requires an object).

Patterns:

• "talk up + product/idea/person" → to praise or promote
• "talk something up" → to make it seem more significant than it is

Common Phrases

• talk up an idea – promote an idea
• talk up the benefits – emphasize advantages
• talk up someone’s skills – praise abilities
• talk up a product – advertise or promote something

Collocations

• talk up the advantages
• talk up the opportunity
• talk up someone’s reputation
• talk up a project

Examples

1. The manager talked up the new project to get everyone excited.
2. She always talks up her brother’s achievements.
3. The salesman talked up the features of the car to convince me to buy it.
4. Politicians often talk up the economy during election campaigns.
5. The coach talked up the team’s chances before the match.
6. He tried to talk up his idea, but no one seemed interested.
7. The company talked up the importance of sustainability in its report.
8. She talked up the benefits of studying abroad to her classmates.

Synonyms or Related

• promote
• praise
• hype up
• advertise
• publicize

Antonym

• play down
• criticize
• downplay