Confusing Words in English: LISTEN or HEAR?

"Listen" or "hear"? Do you know which word to use? These verbs may seem the same, but we use them differently in English. In this easy lesson, you'll learn how to use these words correctly. I'll also teach you some of the most common expressions we use with "listen" and "hear" so that you get real-life examples of these words in English. After you watch, take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/confusing-words... to make sure you know the difference between "listening" and "hearing".
Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we have a lesson on two verbs: "listen" and "hear", and we're going to look at the ways that you use them, because they're a bit similar; they're both to do with your hearing and listening. You... When you're using your ears. So, it's a little confusing sometimes for people to know when to use "listen" and when to use "hear", so I've got a few examples, here, to try to show what context they can be used in. Okay.

So, let's have a look first at "listen", which is quite an active thing. You're really concentrating when you're listening, listening to a piece of music, really thinking about it as you're listening, so it's quite active. So, "listening to something", you're using the preposition with it. Listening to the radio, listening to a CD, listening to. Somebody might say to a friend: "Oh, you never listen to me. I'm telling you something, but you're not listening. You're thinking about something else. You never listen to me." So, "to" again, there. "You don't concentrate on what I'm saying." Okay? And there's another way you can use "listen", you can "listen out" for something. That's a different preposition. If you're in an office and your colleague needs to go out, they're expecting a phone call, they might say to you: "Will you listen out for the phone? And answer the phone for me while I'm not here? Take a message", maybe. "Will you listen out for the phone?" So it's quite an active listening, focusing, concentrating on the sound. Okay.

Compared with that, "to hear" is a little bit more passive. You sort of receive the soundwaves into your ears, whether you decide to or not. So, someone might say: "Did you hear that strange noise just then?" You weren't listening for a noise, but you heard a noise. It sort of came in through your ear into your brain, and your brain recognized: "Oh, what was that noise?" So: "Did you hear that strange noise?" Okay? And another one, if you don't hear what someone says: "Could you speak up, please?" Meaning: Speak more loudly. "I can't hear you." So, you wouldn't say: "I can't listen you", that... That's not right. "I can't hear you." The sound isn't getting to my ear. Okay. If a friend wants to tell you about something, and you don't really... You're not interested, really: "I don't want to hear about that." I don't want to receive that information. Okay? And then finally, last example: "Have you heard", so this is the past tense. "Have you heard from your sister recently?" So, "to hear from" someone, another preposition is to receive maybe a phone call. You're not expecting it, maybe, the phone rings, you answer it. Ah, it's your sister. You've heard from your sister. Okay.

Learn English: Using AT, IN THE, AGO, and more words to talk about time

Learn how to use AT, IN THE, AGO, and more words to talk about time! Do you know how to express the time and day of an event? For example, if you say, “at breakfast” or “in the morning”, does that refer to the past, present, or future? In this essential lesson, I will explain how to express different times of day using words like at, in the, and ago. You will also learn other useful ways of talking about days and times in the past, present, and future using words likeyesterday, tomorrow, tonight, last night, and more. At the end of the lesson, make sure to complete the quiz to test your understanding

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson, we're looking at how to talk about days and times. And we're going to start by looking at prepositions, because sometimes it's a little bit confusing which preposition to use for particular references to the day or the time. Okay?

So, there are two main prepositions. There's "at" and there's "in", and "in the" usually or always, probably. So, with "at", we can have the... A specific time on the clock: "At 2pm" or "At 2:00", "At 2:30", "At midnight", all the times on the clock or on your watch is "at". And then when you're referring to mealtimes: "At breakfast time", "At lunchtime", "At teatime". We like teatime, here in the UK. It's very traditional. Around 4:00, nice cup of tea. Lovely. "At teatime", "At dinnertime", and "At night". Okay? So, "At night". But when it comes to other words that are linked with morning, afternoon, evening, night - we use a different preposition. So, it's just "night" that has "at" with it there, and then the mealtime, and the specific times on your watch.

Okay, so let's have a look at the "in" preposition, and see what goes with "in". So, you can say: "In the morning", "In the afternoon", "In the daytime", meaning anytime during the day. "In the daytime", "In the middle of the day", so that's roughly maybe midday, 12:00 or 1:00, 2:00, that sort of time. "In the middle of the day". "In the evening". You can also say: "In the night", which has the sort of meaning: "During the night". We've got: "At night" there, but you can say: "In the night" meaning: "Oh, I woke up in the night because I'd had a bad dream." So: "I woke up during the night because I had a bad dream." So you can use it with "night" with both prepositions. Okay? And then: "In the middle of the night". You can also say: "I woke up in the middle of the night." Okay, so I hope that helps to make clear which preposition to use. And now we're going to move on and look at some past, present, and future words. Okay.

Okay, so moving on to look at some words about the past, the present, and the future. Okay? Past, present, future. We have, for example: "yesterday". Yesterday was Tuesday. "Today". Today is Wednesday. "Tomorrow", tomorrow is Thursday. Okay? Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Then, when you're talking about different parts of today-okay?-we use "this", so you say: "This morning". That is whether it is morning at the moment: "This morning we are going to do something" or you can say: "This morning we had our breakfast at 9:00." So, "this morning" you can use in the present or the past. "This morning", "this afternoon". And again, oh, you could say: "This afternoon we will", so that's like future, or: "This afternoon we are doing something", in the present. So you can use these past, present, future, but it's all with: "This morning", "This afternoon", "This evening", but it then changes. We don't say: "This night", we say: "Tonight", all one word, "Tonight". Okay? So that's just one little exception: "Tonight". Okay.

And then looking at something similar for yesterday, we can say: "Yesterday morning", "Yesterday afternoon we went to see a film", "Yesterday evening we went to see some friends", but again, we don't say: "Yesterday night", we say: "Last night". Okay, so another little exception. "Tonight", "Last night" are different. Okay. Right.

And then moving on to look at the future: "Tomorrow morning", "Tomorrow afternoon", "Tomorrow evening". There is a good program on television tomorrow evening. And this time it's the same: "Tomorrow night". So, it doesn't change. "Tonight", "Last night", "Tomorrow night".

And then moving on to look either further back in the past, or other times in the present, or further into the future. With the day of the week, you can say: "Last Monday", which was Monday of last week; you could say: "This Monday", Monday of this week; or "Next Monday" in the future, "Monday of next week". Okay? And similarly, you can use these in combination. "Last week", "This week", "Next week", "Last month", "This month", "Next month", "Last year", "This year", and "Next year". So they're all very straightforward. Okay?