Hear and Here

Commonly Confused Words

hear and here
It's hard to hear in here!. (PeopleImages.com/Getty Images)

The words hear and here are homophones: they sound alike but have different meanings.

Definitions

The verb hear means to perceive sound or to listen. Hear also means to receive a message or gain information. The past form of hear is heard.

The adverb here means at, in, or toward a place or a particular point in a process.

Examples

  • "It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear."
    (Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 1849)
  • "She was nine years old and she could hear her little red rooster, Mr. Barnes, crowing at first light. Then came her brother's heavy work boots clomping downstairs and the vacuum swoosh as he opened up the storm door, and then his boots crunch-crunching through the frozen snow."
    (Thom Jones, "I Want to Live!" Harper's, 1993)
  •  “I was sorry to hear about your trouble, Mr. Greenspahn. Did you get my card?”
    (Stanley Elkin, "Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers." Perspective, 1962)
  • "The buck stops here."
    (Sign on the desk of President Harry Truman)
  • "'Here is a copy of the title deed,' she said, passing it to Perry Jr. 'As you will see, it is properly signed and notarized.' He turned it over, held it up to the light looking for errors, finding none."
    (Pam Durban, "Soon." Soon. University of South Carolina Press, 2015)
  • "You will be given cardboard, ribbon and red tissue paper during the last period today so that you may make your gifts. Glue and scissors are here at the work table."
    (Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House, 1969)
  • "Every man in the street in New York is a fighter, especially from inside a car. The insults! I've lived here for many years and I still can't believe what I hear people call each other."
    (Tom Wolfe, "The Street Fighters." Mauve Gloves and Madmen, Clutter and Vine, 1976) 

Idiom Alerts

  • Hear What You Are Saying
    The expression I hear what you're saying (or simply I hear you) means that I understand your point of view or position (on an issue).
    “I hear what you're saying,” Terry McLarney tells him. “I just don't believe you really mean it.”
    (David Simon, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Houghton Mifflin, 1991)
  • Here and There
    The expression here and there means in various places or on various occasions.
    - "Even the tune of 'Beasts of England' was perhaps hummed secretly here and there: at any rate, it was a fact that every animal on the farm knew it, though no one would have dared to sing it aloud."
    (George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945)
    - "Here and there a man might be hoeing or a woman hanging up wash while hymns out of Antigua blew from the radio on her windowsill."
    (John Updike, Self-Consciousness: Memoirs. Knopf, 1989)

Practice

(a) "She came _____ from Daytona, I think. She owned a houseboat over there."
(Alice Walker, "Looking for Zora." In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. Harcourt, 1983)


(b) "He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to _____ him crow."
(George Eliot. Adam Bede, 1859)

(c) "As he ran he could ____ the 'Plop! Plop!' of the oobleck on the window panes."
(Dr. Seuss, Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Random House, 1949)

(d) "It is already like summer _____. Cicadas drone in the weeds and the day seems long."
(Walker Percy, The Moviegoer. Vintage, 1961)
 

Answers to Practice Exercises

Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words

200 Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs

Answers to Practice Exercises: Hear and Here

(a) "She came here from Daytona, I think. She owned a houseboat over there."
(Alice Walker, "Looking for Zora." In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. Harcourt, 1983)


(b) "He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow."
(George Eliot. Adam Bede, 1859)

(c) "As he ran he could hear the 'Plop! Plop!' of the oobleck on the window panes."
(Dr. Seuss, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, 1949)

(d) "It is already like summer here. Cicadas drone in the weeds and the day seems long."
(Walker Percy, The Moviegoer. Vintage, 1961)

Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words

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Your Citation
Nordquist, Richard. "Hear and Here." ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/hear-and-here-1689408. Nordquist, Richard. (2021, February 16). Hear and Here. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/hear-and-here-1689408 Nordquist, Richard. "Hear and Here." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/hear-and-here-1689408 (accessed March 28, 2024).