"to hear" in seven languages
Meaningto hear
Spanish
/oˈiɾ/
inherited
Escuchar is 'to listen'.
French
/ɑ̃tɑ̃dʁ/
other source · Latin INTENDERE 'to stretch toward, direct one's attention'
Old ouïr (← AUDĪRE) survives only in ouï-dire 'hearsay'.
Italian
/senˈtire/
other source · Latin SENTĪRE 'to perceive, feel'
Sentire is hearing, smelling and feeling at once; udire (← AUDĪRE) is literary.
Portuguese
/oˈvih/
inherited
Romanian
/auˈzi/
inherited
Catalan
/sənˈti/
other source · Latin SENTĪRE 'to perceive, feel'
Like Italian sentire; the AUDĪRE heir oir is literary.
English
/hɪɹ/
native English · Old English hīeran
Watch out: false friends
entender (Spanish) means “to understand” · entendre (French) means “to hear”
Both from Latin INTENDERE 'to direct (the mind) toward'. French shifted to hearing, keeping 'understand' only in phrases (laisser entendre, bien entendu); Spanish kept understanding.
The Latin ancestor
AUDĪRE‘to hear’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Only Spanish kept AUDĪRE in daily use. Beware: French entendre 'to hear' is the cognate of Spanish entender 'to understand' — same Latin, different sense.
English relatives: audio, audience, audible, audition
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- es¿Me oyes?
- frTu m'entends ?
- itMi senti?
- ptVocê está me ouvindo?
- roMă auzi?
- caEm sents?
- enCan you hear me?
More words from the same Latin
More in Core verbs
- to understandentendercomprendrecapireentenderînțelegeentendre
- to believecreercroirecredereacreditarcredecreure
- to findencontrartrouvertrovareencontrargăsitrobar
- to arrivellegararriverarrivarechegarajungearribar
- to leave, to departsalirpartirpartiresairplecasortir
- to enter, to go inentrarentrerentrareentrarintraentrar