Learn how to use the verb "hear"
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| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Know Your Verbs. My name is Alisha. And today, we're going to talk about the verb "hear." Let's get started. |
| The basic definition of the verb, "hear" is to perceive with the ear or to get information with your ears. Okay. Example sentences of this first part. "Can you hear me now?" "I heard you singing." |
| Let's look at the different conjugations for this verb. Present, "hear," "hears." Past, "heard." Past participle, "heard." Progressive, "hearing." |
| Now, let's talk about some different meanings of this verb. The first meaning is to listen carefully to something or to give your attention to something. Examples, "Hear me out." "Why don't you hear what he has to say?" In the first sentence, "Hear me out." That's kind of a set expression we use. "Hear me out" means "Please listen to me" or "Please listen carefully to my idea, to my proposal. Please listen carefully to what I'm going to say. Hear me out." It's kind of like you're requesting someone else's attention there. |
| In the second example, "Why don't you hear what he has to say?" So, yes, we're using our ears to listen, sure, but "Why don't you hear what he has to say?" also suggests you should give your attention to that person. So, "Why don't you hear what he has to say? Yes. Listen and give your attention, too. So, listen carefully to someone. So, we can use "hear" to have this nuance. |
| The second additional meaning for today is to receive communication. Examples, "Have you heard from him lately?" "I've been hearing a lot about next week's meeting." This meaning of the verb "hear" is like to receive communication. This can mean receiving communication with your ears but it can also mean written communication. In the first example, "Have you heard from him lately?" That can mean like with your ears, like receiving a phone call from someone. But it can also refer to receiving a letter, receiving an email, receiving some kind of communication. "Have you heard from him lately?" |
| In the second example, I used the progressive tense. "I've been hearing a lot about next week's meeting." So, here, the word, "hear" is used in the progressive tense. "I've been hearing a lot." That means maybe over the last few days or over the last few weeks, this speaker has been receiving information about the next week's meeting. So, maybe again, that's information they received with their ears but it could also be written information, written communication about next week's meeting. So, "hearing a lot," even though the verb, "hear" is used, it can also mean written communication. |
| The third meaning for this lesson is to consider an idea, but this is used in the negative form. So, examples of this, "You want to pay for dinner? I won't hear of it." "I asked my boss for a raise but my boss wouldn't hear of it." So, we have this expression that's "hear of it," where it refers to some idea for consideration. So, in the first sentence, the speaker says, "You want to pay for dinner?" So that's the idea. "You want to pay for dinner?" And then, "I won't hear of it." Meaning, "I won't consider that idea." |
| In the second example sentence, "I asked my boss for a raise but he wouldn't hear of it." "Hear of it," in that case, refers back to "asking my boss for a raise." So, we use this in the negative. "He wouldn't hear of it." "I won't hear of it." So, this is like I said used in the negative form so to mean, "I'm not going to consider that thing." |
| So, let's go to a few variations of this verb. The first variation is the expression "Hear, hear!" This is kind of an old-fashioned expression that we use to express agreement. Examples, "A policy change? Hear, hear!" "Free ice cream on Fridays? Hear, hear." These examples are kind of modern-day examples and so it sounds a little bit strange to use "Hear, hear!" to express your agreement. However, you might hear this in movies or maybe in books, in literature, although it's not used so much in everyday speech. |
| The second variation that I want to introduce is "hear a case," "to hear a case." This is an expression that's used in law, in legal proceedings. So, "to hear a case" means to give attention to someone's legal discussion, like to give your attention to like a legal argument. So, examples of this, "The court wouldn't hear our case." "The judge is hearing the case tomorrow." So, both of these examples are legal examples. "The court wouldn't hear our case." So, past tense, "hear," "wouldn't hear our case." It's a legal situation. This means the court, so "the court" meaning the court system. So, judges, depending on your country. I don't know. The court or a judge or lawyers or whoever is involved in the court system, wouldn't hear meaning would not give attention to our legal discussion, to our disagreement. "The court wouldn't hear our case." |
| The second example sentence, "The judge is hearing the case tomorrow," means that tomorrow is the planned day for the judge. A judge is the person who presides over. So, they kind of manage the court. They are in charge of making the decisions regarding legal disagreements. Saying, "The judge is hearing the case tomorrow," means "Tomorrow, the judge is going to listen to our legal disagreement." |
| Alright. So, those are a few maybe new ways to use the verb, "hear." If you have any questions or if you have any comments or if you want to try to make a sentence using the verb "hear," please feel free to do so in the comments section. Of course, if you liked the video, please make sure to give it a thumbs-up, subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and check us out at EnglishClass101.com for some more study resources. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs and we'll see you again next time. Bye. |
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