Basic English Lesson: LISTEN or HEAR?

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com,

and today we have a lesson on two verbs: "listen" and "hear",

and we're going to look at the ways that you use them, because they're a bit similar;

they're both to do with your hearing and listening. You... When you're using your ears. So, it's

a little confusing sometimes for people to know when to use "listen" and when to use "hear",

so I've got a few examples, here, to try to show what context they can be used in. Okay.

So, let's have a look first at "listen", which is quite an active thing. You're really concentrating

when you're listening, listening to a piece of music, really thinking about it as you're

listening, so it's quite active. So, "listening to something", you're using the preposition

with it. Listening to the radio, listening to a CD, listening to. Somebody might say to a friend:

"Oh, you never listen to me. I'm telling you something, but you're not

listening. You're thinking about something else. You never listen to me."

So, "to" again, there. "You don't concentrate on what I'm saying." Okay?

And there's another way you

can use "listen", you can "listen out" for something. That's a different preposition.

If you're in an office and your colleague needs to go out, they're expecting a phone

call, they might say to you:

"Will you listen out for the phone? And answer the phone for me while I'm not here? Take a message",

maybe. "Will you listen out for the phone?"

So it's quite an active listening, focusing, concentrating on the sound. Okay.

Compared with that, "to hear" is a little bit more passive. You sort of receive the

soundwaves into your ears, whether you decide to or not. So, someone might say:

"Did you hear that strange noise just then?"

You weren't listening for a noise, but you heard a noise.

It sort of came in through your ear into your brain, and your brain recognized:

"Oh, what was that noise?" So: "Did you hear that strange noise?" Okay?

And another one, if you don't hear what someone says:

"Could you speak up, please?" Meaning: Speak more loudly.

"I can't hear you." So, you wouldn't say: "I can't listen you", that... That's not right.

"I can't hear you." The sound isn't getting to my ear. Okay. If a friend wants to tell you

about something, and you don't really... You're not interested, really:

"I don't want to hear about that." I don't want to receive that information. Okay?

And then finally, last example: "Have you heard", so this is the past tense.

"Have you heard from your sister recently?"

So, "to hear from" someone, another preposition is to receive maybe a phone call.

You're not expecting it, maybe, the phone rings, you answer it. Ah, it's your sister.

You've heard from your sister. Okay.

So, I hope that helps to explain the difference between "listen" and "hear".

"Listen", more active; "hear" more just receiving passively. Okay.

So, if you'd like to test your understanding of this, please go to the website: www.engvid.com,

and do the quiz. And if you found this lesson helpful,

please subscribe to my channel on YouTube.

And hope to see you again soon. Okay?

Bye.