Spanish Verb Highlight: Oír
By Peter on Jan 12, 2010 in Spanish
Welcome to the first post of a new series at Babelhut.com, Spanish Verb Highlight. This series will highlight a different Spanish verb in every post, and provide several example sentences showing how the verb is used in different tenses.
The first verb highlighted is oír, which means to hear, or to listen to. Oír is an irregular verb, and one that I personally have trouble remembering how to conjugate. You have probably seen or heard oír in the form of ¡oye!, which is used to get someone’s attention in the same way that we would say “hey!” in English.
Let’s look at some example sentences, some of which I have pulled from the Spanish-English Sentence Database:
He tenido que dormir con tapones para no oír tus ronquidos.
I’ve had to sleep with earplugs so I wouldn’t hear your snores.
Oigo las sirenas muy cerca.
I hear sirens very close by.
Se oyeron unos gritos de dolor.
They heard some painful screams.
¿Has oído lo que han dicho las noticias?
Have you heard what they’re saying on the news?
Creo que oiga algo.
I think I hear something.
¿Qué estás oyendo?
What are you listening to?
Te oyó la primera vez.
He heard you the first time.
Add these sentences to the SRS of your choice so that you don’t forget how to use this verb!
Photo credit: CarbonNYC
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Just to add a bit of fat to the fire, here in Chile we tend to use “escuchar” more than oír. In fact, it would be much more common in every one of your examples… At least it’s easier to conjugate!
Come to think of it, I think the most common use of oír here is in Oye or Oiga for attention getting…. as in “¡Oye! ¿Me estás escuchando?”
Margaret | May 17, 2010 | Reply
Hi! I want to call into your attention that “oír” means “hear” but not “listen”. Oír refers to the ability to perceive sounds. Listen, on the other hand, is the counterpart of “escuchar”, which refers to paying attention to what one is hearing. Hope you’ll find my comment useful.-
Roberto A Bonaldi | May 17, 2010 | Reply
Sorry, I forgot to mention I’m writing from Argentina, my native country, and the differences I mentioned are taught in primary school here… I was surprised to realise I still remembered them!
Roberto A Bonaldi | May 17, 2010 | Reply
Thank you for covering this verb. The examples are quite helpful. I have been studying Spanish for a while now, but the more exposure I have to oir and its tenses the better.
Always nice to encounter some new vocabulary too: tapones and ronquidos. I like this Highlight series. Thanks!
Mike | May 20, 2010 | Reply
I agree with Mike, this series is helpful.
So if I got it right, Oie means to hear and Escuchar means “listen”, right? I think a lot of people are easily confused by this, especially newbies who doesnt have a lot of idea about spanish yet. =)
espanol mi amor | May 21, 2010 | Reply
This can be confusing, it requires some practise but there are worse confusion such as:
French means “to hear”, entender in Spanish means “to understand”….I think the real problem here for English native speakers is to remember the conjugation of verbs which is, by far, easier in English.
Romain | Feb 21, 2013 | Reply