Walkie-talkie

Posted by Lewis on April 07, 2003

In Reply to: Walk the talk posted by R. Berg on April 06, 2003

: : :
: : : Need help on the following sentence:

: : : Walking the talk is often a difficult and costly process.

: : : what does "walk the talk" mean here?

: : : Thanks!

: : I'm guessing here. There's an expression that goes something like "Oh, he can talk the talk all right, but he can't walk the walk", which basically means that someone talks a good game but who, when it comes to action, is utterly useless or ineffectual. Following on from this, I'd suspect that your phrase "to walk the talk", if correctly quoted, means to follow through with real actions on verbal claims or promises.

: Right, or almost right. The slogan "Walk your talk" (I think I've seen it as a bumper sticker) means "Put your principles into practice." It urges a move from believing to doing.

To "walk the walk" is to put into effect what has been boasted of - and to "walk the talk" is a truncated version of "you gotta walk the walk, not just talk the talk" saving quite a few words.
I don't much like "walk the talk" as if people know the expression, they might as well say "walk the walk" without inelegantly mixing verbs. But that's just me.