escuchar o oir?

In lesson 13.10 you have: 1. Escucho cantar el pájaro. - I hear the bird sing. and in an earlier lesson: 'Los vecinos eschuchan todo lo que dices.', or something similar (and correct, which this may not be) again translated as 'hear'. Escuchar is also to listen, I think; is there a different way of using listen and hear (escuchar and oir) in spanish. Help gratefully received!

Hola PB. As I understand it, the difference is that "oír" means to hear something involuntarily, whereas "escuchar" implies intention. I googled "escuchar vs. oir" to be sure, and I found lots of discussions of this. The two I looked at supported my understanding. Here's one explanation from a Spanish blog written (I think) by a Spanish speaker: *La diferencia entre oír y escuchar está en la intención. Escuchar es algo que se hace intencionadamente, mientras que oír es algo que sucede independientemente de nuestra voluntad. Por eso podemos oír sin querer.* I would translate that as "The difference between oír and escuchar is in the intention. Escuchar is something that is done intentionally, while oír is something that happens independently of our will. Therefore, we can oír/hear without meaning to do so." A discussion on that wonderful source of information, Wordreference.com, supports this. One Spanish speaker said *"Oir" es involuntario mientras que "escuchar" implica voluntad deliberada de oir y entender. "No te oigo" significa "no soy capaz de captar lo que dices" mientras que "no te escucho" significa que, deliberadamente "no presto atención a lo que me dices".* In English, this second sentence means ""No te oigo" means "I am not able to capture/receive/hear what you say" while "no te escucho" means that, deliberately, "I am not paying attention to what you're saying to me." I hope this helps.

Thank you! great reply - and Wordreference.com sounds a great resource. Will be happy to try it. :D

Yes, the forums on Wordreference.com are an _amazing_ resource! People from all over the Spanish-speaking and English-speaking world ask and answer each other's questions. I remember feeling a bit intimidated when I first started using this site, but it's far and away the best place I know for getting answers to questions about Spanish. Most of the time, I don't even have to ask a question, since many of my questions have already been discussed; I can simply use the search mechanism to locate and read some of the discussions.