Here or Hear? What’s the Difference and When to Use Them

The English language is full of confusing elements and quirks. One of these is the ‘homophones’, words that are spelled differently and have different meanings, but sound the same. This article will help you to understand the difference between the words: here and hear.

Definitions and Examples of Here and Hear

The best place to start in order to understand these two words is to take a look at their definitions.

The word here means, ‘in, at or to this place’. Simply speaking, here is used when you are referring to the place where you are. It is an adverb, a word that gives more information about a verb or adjective.  It can be used to refer to something you are offering to a person, for example, ‘Here is your coffee.’

Some other examples of here are:

When Grandma comes home, tell her I’m up here.

She was in here a minute ago.

You can sign the paper here.

I have a new book here.

Here we go.

Here are some letters.

Now, the word hear means something entirely different. Hear is a verb, meaning to listen to a sound. It can also mean gaining a message or information. The past tense of the verb hear, is heard. These are some examples to help make this clearer:

I love to hear music playing.

I loved hearing the bells ring yesterday.

Have you heard what she did?

I waited so long to hear the results.

Have you heard about this book?

Do you know when to use hear or here? Test Yourself!

Is the missing word hear or here?

• Can you hear/here what they’re saying?
• I think I would like to live hear/here.
• Come and sit hear/here with me.
• Well I can’t stand hear/here all day.
• I would love to hear/here his voice again.

The answers will be at the end of the article if you need a little help or would like to check how you’ve done.

Top Tip for remembering when to use hear or here!

A little tip that can be used to remember the difference between these homophones is… Think, you hear with your ear. This should help you to remember which is which, as the word hear has ear in it!

Summary

The English language can be very tricky at times. Hopefully this short article will help you to learn the difference between the homophones here and hear. If you get a bit stuck, have a look at the definitions again, as well as the examples. You could even try to remember the top tip! Good luck with your studies, happy learning.

Answers to the test:

• Can you hear what they’re saying?
• I think I would like to live here.
• Come and sit here with me.
• Well I can’t stand here all day.
• I would love to hear his voice again.

Enjoyed reading this? Take a look at our latest English grammar article, ‘Neither or Either: What’s the Difference?’…