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I'd like to ask the connotations they have when we say :

She has a talent for singing/ playing football/ acting/ painting etc.

She has a knack for singing/ playing football/ acting/ painting etc.

Definitions by Oxford Dictionary

Talent : A natural ability to do something well

Knack : A special skill or ability that you have naturally or can learn

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    A talent is large, sweeping; a knack is small, focused, sometimes odd or interesting but useless (like a parlor trick).
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 16:42
  • Would it be odd or disdaining to use the word knack for someone's singing
    – Mrt
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 16:45
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    It's much more common to describe singing, on the whole, as a talent (in fact, it is a classic example of a talent!), but you could say she has a knack for singing, if it pleases you. It'd be more idiomatic to describe something smaller, and possible odder, as a knack, such as, perhaps, she has a knack for karaoke.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 16:47
  • She has a knack for saying just the right thing / knitting little bootees / playing a piece of music everyone will like / buying presents the grandchildren really like ...
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 16:59

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Knack can have several meanings. The most common implies an ordinary person with no particular training that happens to be particularly good at a certain activity. A similar meaning is that the person can learn that activity quicker than normal. These two definitions are closely related to 'talented' as they both deal with natural ability. However, talented often implies they already have some degree of expertise.

After starting to take piano lessons, Joe found that he had a knack for music and was soon playing complex pieces.
John is such a talented musician that he can play a song after hearing it once on the radio.

An alternate connotation of knack implies a tendency based on sheer luck. While using 'talent' here could get your meaning across, 'knack' is preferable.

Susie had a knack for picking the winners of the horse race, even though she just picked the horses with cute names

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