Confusion between Spanish verbs Oír and Escuchar
In Spanish we have different verbs to say to hear and to listen just like in English. They have different meanings in the dictionary, but the truth is that in Spanish oír and escuchar can be interchangeable sometimes and this can be a cause of confusion for learners.
Learn about Spanish verbs Oír and Escuchar
Oír means "to hear", i.e. it's used in Spanish when we refer to perceiving sounds, words, noises... For example, we would use oír in these contexts:
In all these examples we are using oír because we are talking about perceiving the sounds. There is no intentionality involved in these actions. They hear it because they have ears!
Escuchar means "to listen", i.e. intentionally paying attention while you're hearing something. Here are some examples:
Using Escuchar instead of Oír
After having made this distinction between these two verbs it's fair to say that it is not unusual to hear people use the verb escuchar when we should use oír if we follow what it's just been said about their meanings. For example, you may also hear people say:
Here, the speaker is still referring to a sudden noise that they "heard" (they were not listening to it paying attention) but chose to say this with escuchar instead. This is very common practice.
Or when we lose the phone signal you might also say:
The speaker is not really asking if the listener is paying attention to what they are saying, they're still asking if the other person can hear them again (perceive the sound), but they chose to use escuchar instead of oír. This is not unusual at all.
Using Oír instead of Escuchar
However, the other way around, using oír instead of escuchar when paying attention is clearly required is not general practice.
Other uses of Oír and Escuchar
It's important to note that short expressions using the imperative of oír and escuchar are often used colloquially to call the attention to the listeners, this is often translated into English as Hey!
Lessons with more detail on (Learn about Spanish verbs Oír and Escuchar)
- Conjugate oír in the present tense in Spanish (El Presente)
- Conjugate oír in the preterite tense in Spanish (El Pretérito Indefinido)
- Using the imperative of mirar/oír with specific meanings -irony, attention, supposition
- Verbs ver, oír, escuchar + infinitive/gerund
- Verbs ver, oír, escuchar, oler, sentir, encontrar in the imperfect
