# Oír vs escuchar: hear vs listen

> id: contrast.oir-escuchar · category: contrast · depth: standard · levels: A2 · review: internally_reviewed

**Summary.** Oír = perceive sound (no te oigo bien); escuchar = listen attentively (escuchá esta canción). In Latin American speech, escuchar increasingly covers both.

This mirrors mirar/ver for the ears. Oír is to perceive sound, whether you mean to or not — 'to hear': oí un ruido, no te oigo bien. Escuchar is to listen attentively, on purpose — 'to listen (to)': escuchá esta canción, escuché el podcast entero.

On the phone both are used for 'can you hear me?': no te oigo and no te escucho are equally common. More broadly, in Latin American speech escuchar increasingly covers both meanings, so using escuchar where Spain might say oír is normal.

Oír also supplies attention-getters: oye / oiga ('hey, listen'), and in voseo oí / oíme. A handy idiom is hacerse el sordo ('to pretend not to hear'). Note that oír is irregular: oigo, oyes, oye, oímos, oís, oyen.

## Examples
- ¿Me escuchás? Se corta la llamada. — Can you hear me? The call keeps cutting out.
- Oí un golpe en el techo anoche. — I heard a bang on the roof last night.
- Escuchá bien: oí que cerraron la calle por la marcha. — Listen carefully: I heard they closed the street because of the march.

Related: contrast.mirar-ver, conjugation.present.irregular-other

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