你知道Listen和Hear的区别吗？

在英语中，最常用的表示“听”的动词就是listen和hear了。但是你知道为什么它们要被分开使用吗?比如，你想表达“我爱听音乐”的意思，就必须说“I like to listen to music”，绝不能说“I like to hear music”。都是通过耳膜去感受声音，为何listen和hear会不同呢?其实道理很简单。

第一步，我们先从了解两个单词各自的词义开始：

listen ：to pay attention to what someone is saying or to a sound that you can hear

例：

We listened carefully to the president’s speech.

My lawyer did all the talking, I just sat and listened.

What kind of music do you listen to?

Listen, we really need to sort out our insurance claim this weekend.

这里要注意，listen是不及物动词，使用时需要跟上介词。举个简单的例子，就是不能说“listen music”，而要说“listen to music”。

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再来看看hear

hear：to know that a sound is being made, using your ears

例：

My grandfather is getting old and can't hear very well.

You'll have to speak up, I can't hear you.

I heard a noise outside.

My grandmother is getting old. She can’t hear very well.

这里也要注意，当hear表示无意识的“听”时不能用于进行时态。举个简单的例子，就是不能说“I’m hearing you”，而要说“I can hear you”。

在了解了listen和hear各自的意思后，你是否做好准备区分它们了呢?或许你已经察觉了，其实它们的区别用几句话就能概括：

There is an important difference between them. Listening describes an intentional activity. When you are listening, you are actively trying to hear something.

You cannot control if you can hear the sound. You can control if you listen to the sound. Your ear will hear the sound, whether you want to or not.

简单地说，listen特指你“主动获取”声音，而hear则是不管你主动还是被动都会“获取”声音。

你可以从这些例句中去体会listen和hear的区别：

His story was so long and boring that I stopped listening, until suddenly I heard my name.

I was listening to the radio when I heard the phone ring.

I’m listening but I can’t hear you!

Listen! Did you hear that? I think I heard a noise.

如果你已经将以上这些知识都吸收了，就应该可以一分钟判断出何时该用listen，何时该用hear了。接下来就是考验你的时刻啦， 请速速说出“我听她说了”，和“我在听她说话”各自该用哪个动词?