🗓️ Idiom: Talk Past Each Other (v)
💬 Meaning
- To have a conversation where people do not understand each other’s main point because the speakers are talking about different things.
- Two people talking about different subjects but not realising.
🧠 Example Sentences
- During the meeting, the two managers were talking past each other and didn’t solve the issue.
- I felt like we were talking past each other because he kept changing the topic.
- In cross-cultural discussions, people sometimes talk past each other by using different styles of communication.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom likely comes from the image of two people speaking but their words “passing by” each other without connection. It became popular in politics and business to describe unproductive conversations.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
The debate was unhelpful because the speakers were just __________.
Answer
talking past each other
2. Choose the correct meaning of “talk past each other”:
A) To agree too quickly
B) To talk about the same thing
C) Misunderstanding because of not talking about the same subject
Answer
C) Misunderstanding because of not talking about the same subject
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“They didn’t understand each other in the meeting because they were focused on different issues.” → Change the sentence using: talk past each other
Answer
They didn’t understand each other because they were talking past each other.