The verb «to hear» means to be aware of sounds in your ears, so when you there is a sound (for example the radio is on) and you receive that sound through your ears.
That verb «to listen (to)» means to pay attention to somebody/something that you can hear. So when you listen to something or somebody you make an effort to hear it or them. When you hear something you usually don’t have to make an effort — it just happens (provided your ears are intact of course.)
BTW: Many thanks for including the particular question you are referring to as well as a descriptive headline — this will help other forum members to navigate. Also, it’s good you have added your picture — now we know who Sam is. Thanks[YSaerTTEW443543]
Let us imagine someone is giving a talk in a hall and wants to know whether the people at the back of the hall (who are rather a long way away) can hear him - that means are able to understand what he is saying while he is giving a talk.
Hi,
Your first assumption was correct, the answer IS “hear” and not “listen”. Read the sentence again:
“Can you hear me all right over there because you are rather a long way away?”
If this might be of a little help to you when you use listen, you need the preposition to. We usually say LISTEN TO. Here are some examples:
I’m listening to the radio now.
Are you listening to me? (I’m talking to you and I want to know if you pay attention to what I’m telling you.)
Daniela
Hi every one of you!! I think that the explanation Daniella Gave, is the key toi understand and use correctly the word Listen an Hear. I listen to the News every morning, but sometime I do not hear them clearly.
Gracias a los Maestros Thank you to all the teachers.
Ed.
I think is more deeper than hear. When you listening, it involves understanding to what was spoken to you. While hearing or the word hear only only involves the function of your ear. You can hear but never perceiving. Thats what I can tell to that. Hope that I contribute something. Goodbye!
I’ve done the test Listen vs. Hear and my score was 8 out of ten at first attempt.
One of my mistakes was :
At exercise 5:
I am listening to the concert
instead of
I listen to the concert every Monday.
Could you tell me more about this two time forms. More exactly i would like a reference to the words which are used with present simple and which are used with present continuous.
The other mistake was at exercise 4:
I hear what you are saying
I’ve put “listen”
Why isn’t it correct?
I think I can listen to something(hear actively) without changing my mind related to that thing.
When you do something regularly as in the sentence ‘every Monday’, you would use a ‘simple’ form. It could be present or it could be past = I listen/I listened.
‘I hear what you are saying’ means I understand/follow what you are saying. We don’t usually use verbs of the senses in the continuous form because they ‘function’ all the time and don’t need a continuous form because they are ‘continuous’ already in meaning. Again ‘listen’ is a particular action - it means that you not only hear but you also follow closely what you hear. Again if you use ‘listen’ with an object, it would have to be used with the preposition ‘to’. I listen to what you are saying. But that sentence would suggest you do that on a regular basis. ‘I hear what you are saying’ is idiomatic use of ‘hear’ to mean I fully understand what you are saying.
I hope that’s not too much of a mouthful and makes sense.
Thank you for your explanation. It isn’t so much. But usually when i solve a test i can’t think at all of the aspects of grammar.
I’ve learned about verbs of sense before but than i didn’t realise that it is about that.
I think I need more practice.
Yes I think your definition of both words is quite good. If you listen to something you decide that you want to hear it. If you just hear something you might hear it ‘involuntarily’. So, yes you have understood the difference between listen and hear. If you like you can read listen vs. hear again and let me know what you think.
Hello Sir,
thanks 4 giving explanation -the differance btw “hear” & “listen to”.I have note down it.
Listen to me, t’day I’m going to tell u a story abt" A clever Crow".
I can hear what u r speaking.
I heard this news on radio.
Yashomati
It make me confuse about ‘hear’ vs ‘listen’. I do not when we should use it. just now I understand how to use but not well. I think, I should more practices
“To” is not an ‘infinitive’. It’s a preposition. Yes, listen is usually followed by the preposition ‘to’ but there are occasions where you don’t use ‘to’ after ‘listen’:
Hey, listen up.
Hey Frank, listen.
Come on, just listen![YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: The cyclists[YSaerTTEW443543]
