[Grammar] SPEAK vs. TALK--Collocation and Usage

[Translator-InterpreterARG]

Hi, everyone! I am new in this forum and already have a query to make :roll:

I would like to know whether "speak" or "talk" would be more appropriate in the following example. This sentence belongs to a novel I am editing from Spanish into English and would like to see which collocates best as the use of the verb in Spanish is quite striking. The idea is that the character starts talking out loud even if the other character she is sitting with at a bar table is not listening:

Example A: "(...) so I just spoke, I spoke in order to say, to give, to reward; I spoke about the square, I told him how I’d seen it from the balcony when I first arrived here, yesterday (...)"

Example B: "(...) so I just talked, I talked in order to say, to give, to reward; I talked about the square, I told him how I’d seen it from the balcony when I first arrived here, yesterday (...)"

I checked with Macmillan Dictionaries but I still can't tell which one would suit best here.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

 

[teechar]

"Spoke" is better in your context, as "talk" gives the feeling of a conversation. ;-)

 

[Tdol]

I think you could use either. The past in the middle sounds very odd to me- the list of verbs doesn't add up to much, though I cannot see the wider context.