Which of the following is correct?
- We are arguing over money.
- We are arguing about money.
In which context do we use ‘about’ and ‘over’?
Thanks.
Those are both fine and interchangeable.
In America, “argue about” is considered more formal. Some people here have a strange aversion to using “over” as a preposition unless it describes physical position. They’re both standard, though.
Does it mean that we can always replace ‘about’ with ‘over’ in this sense?
Yes, you can.
Then is it correct to say ‘We’re now talking OVER the transportation’ where I replace ‘about’ with ‘over’?
Both sentences could be correct, but they are not always interchangeable. “Talk over” has a slightly different meaning than “talk about.”
To talk over means to consider or contemplate in discussion. You’re still talking about something, but you’re doing it in detail. And it is likely to be something you and your company perceive as somewhat important. If you casually mention something briefly, you talked about it. You did not talk it over.
We had a dispute, but we talked it over. We have reconciled.
If I ask if you bought the tickets for our trip to Paris and we say nothing else of it, we talked about it. We did not talk it over.
Oh, that means it all depends on whether a change of the preposition will alter the meaning of the verb or not when the verb and the preposition are used together. Since the phrasal verb ‘talk over’ has a different meaning, the preposition ‘over’ cannot be used to mean ‘about’ in this context. Am I right?
Let’s look at these sentences.
I spoke to the manager about their performance.
I spoke to the manager over their performance.
Since there is no phrasal verb that goes ‘speak to sb over sth’, I can replace ‘about’ with ‘over’, right?
Your logic about phrasal verbs is correct, but that still does not make your last sentence OK. It is very odd to say we spoke over something – unless you mean over the phone, over the computer, etc. “Over” is not an all-purpose replacement for “about.”