How to Correctly Use the Verbs Listen/Hear and See/Watch/Look
Many of our students have some confusion with these verbs. This post will explain the differences to you.
Basically, one verb is active and one is passive. 'Hearing' is a passive action. This means that you hear sounds without actively engaging with them. For example, a door shuts and you hear a bang. You didn't make an effort to hear that sound. "I heard a loud bang when the door shut."
'Listening' is a more active action. We make an effort to listen and pay attention to the sounds. For example, we listen to a speech, to music, to the television, to a concert etc. "I listened to the new Beyonce song last night."
'Seeing' is another passive action. We see things without necessarily trying to see them. For example, we see people walking past our desk. We are not actively trying to see them, but as they pass our line of vision, we see them. "I saw a rabbit in the garden yesterday."
'Looking' is an active action. We actively direct our eyes and our line of vision to look at things. For example, we look in the mirror, look into people's eyes, look at our plates etc. "He looked at me and I felt nervous."
'Watching' is another active action. When we talking about watching something it usually means that we are directing our eyes at something that is moving or changing. For example, we watch television, football matches, dances, children playing etc. "I watched four movies this weekend."
Hopefully this makes these verbs easier for you to use. You can write some sentences in the comments below if you like and we will check them for you. Good luck.
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