Learn about Spanish verbs Oír and Escuchar

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:

De repente  un ruido fuera y salí para averiguar qué era.Suddenly I heard a noise outside and I went out to find out what it was.

La recepción es muy mala... ¿me oyes ahora?The signal is very bad... can you hear me now?

Yo no oigo el sonido de la ese al final de la palabra cuando el narrador dice esa frase.I can't hear the sound of the [letter] s at the end of that word when the narrator says that sentence.

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:

Estaba escuchando un programa de radio muy interesante.I was listening to a very interesting radio programm.

Natalia es la única persona que me escucha cuando cuento mis problemas.Natalia is the only person who listens to me when I talk about my problems.

Escúchame porque te tengo que decir varias cosas serias.Listen to me/pay attention to me because I have to tell you some serious stuff.

Escuché lo que él tenía que decir y luego le respondí.I listened to what he had to say and then I answered him.

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:

De repente escuché un ruido fuera y salí para averiguar qué era.Suddenly I heard a noise outside and I went out to find out what it was.

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:

La recepción es muy mala... ¿me escuchas ahora?The signal is very bad... can you hear me now?

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!

¡Oye, ven aquí!Hey, come here!

¡Oiga, señora!Hey, madam!

¡Escucha, no seas pesado!Hey, don't be a pain!

 

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