Listen! Ya Heard? You got it! || Using 听, 听到, and 听懂 in Mandarin

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In Chinese, the words 听, 听到, and 听懂 are similar but have different meanings and are used in different circumstances. In this blog post, we’ll help you clear up any uncertainty you may have regarding these 3!

TLDR

• 听 means “to listen”

• 听到 means “to hear (something)”

• 听懂 means “to listen and understand”

听 - To Listen

The word 听 means "to listen" in Chinese. It is a verb that describes the act of paying attention to sound and processing it mentally👂

Here are some example sentences:

• 我喜欢听音乐，你呢？

  • I like to listen to music, how about you? 🎵

• 好好听，我要讲的话很重要的！

  • Listen well, what I’m about to say is very important!

听到 - To Hear (something)

听到 means “to hear (something)”. The result complement 到, meaning in this case “to arrive at”, has been added after 听.

With 听 meaning “to listen” and 到 meaning “to arrive at”, you can think of 听到 as meaning “to listen and arrive at” something. Isn’t that basically what hearing something is?

While 听 is used in cases of general listening, 听到 is used specifically when the subject of the sentence has heard a specific sound.

Here are some examples:

• 当我听到我妈妈的声音，我觉得高兴得哭起来

  • When I heard my mom’s voice, I felt so happy that I started crying

• 我没听到你说的，请再说一遍

  • I didn’t hear what you said, please say that again

听懂 - To Listen and Understand

听懂 means “to listen and understand”. Unlike 听 alone, it indicates that someone has not only listened to some sound but also understood or comprehended it.

This is because the verb 听 has been modified by the result complement 懂 placed after it. This complement means “to understand, to comprehend”.

Here are some example sentences with 听懂：

• 教授的口音比较重，我没听懂他说的话·。

  • The professor’s accent was rather strong, I didn’t understand what he said

• 这个作业的期限是六月二号，听懂了吗？

  • This homework’s deadline is June 2nd, do you understand?

To Conclude

Here are the key takeaways you should have gotten from this article:

• 听 means “to listen”

• 听到 means “to hear (something)”

• 听懂 means “to listen and understand”

Try out this quiz to test your knowledge!