I have heard you say that...

[bellatter]

I want to say "I have heard you say that..." (as in, "I have heard you say that you like kung foo") but I'm not quite sure how. Here are my guesses:

1) He oído que dices que...
2) Te he oído decir que...

#1 sounds like it could be saying I heard a rumor or something instead of saying I actually heard *you* say those words, and #2 doesn't seem right at all to me. Which is it, or is it something else?

[aleCcowaN]

Both are OK. But a reflexive form is preferred with the nuance of "I've paid attention (to what you say)" and a non-reflexive for the mechanical parts of speech.

"Te he oído decir que te gusta el kung fu." (I've heard an opinion of yours)

"He oído que dices 'caza' en lugar de 'casa'." (I've heard sounds you pronounce)

[swr999]

xxx

[Rusty]

Why not something like "Te he escuchado :bad: decir que te gusta el kung fu".
Or even "(Tú) has dicho que te gusta el kung fu".Neither is a translation of the sentence in the thread title. :)

[swr999]

xxx

[Don José]

As a starting point you can think of them as:

Oír: hear
Escuchar: listen

escuchar música: listen music; you are paying attention to it, it would be as reading a book
oír música: hear music; you may be talking in a pub and you will hear the music (provided you are not deaf) even if you don't pay attention to it.

However they are often badly used, at least in Andalucía ('he escuchado un ruido' instead of 'he oído un ruido'), and I wonder if the defintion aobve would apply always.

I think that 'escúchame' and 'óyeme' are both commonly used, but I don't know what the grammar would think about it

In this song he could / (should?) say 'escucha' instead of 'oye':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFpCALtVUcE

[aleCcowaN]

About "oír" and "escuchar", both meanings overlap a little and the blurry boundary between both of them can move a bit depending on the country and the social group that uses it.

Clearly "oír" means perceiving sounds and "escuchar" means the psychological action of paying attention to those sounds.

Read these examples and look if you can sort them out.

No te oigo bien. Intenta llamarme desde otro teléfono.
Se oyen ruidos en el jardín trasero. Debe haber un mapache.
Vete. No quiero escuchar más tus quejas.
Escucha qué bien interpretada está esta versión de "Rapsodia en azul".
Debes escuchar a tu corazón.
Ten cuidado de que no oigas una arritmia.
Se oye en la calle que el candidato ganador es Fulano de Tal.
Oye ese silencio.
¡Escucha con atención!
¡No hagas como que no me has oído!

[swr999]

xxx

[Rusty]

"I have heard you say ..." and "I have listened to you say ..." don't convey the same level of effort.

[aleCcowaN]

x-axis:

Te he oído decir algo (but I couldn't understand what, may you tell me what you said?)

Te he escuchado decir que ya no quieres trabajar más después de las cinco de la tarde (roger that)

y-axis:

Te he oído decir a veces que quieres dejar los estudios y triunfar en la música (I don't remember when and where, but it's my experience that you hold that idea and this notion comes directly from you, it's not that somebody else have told me)

Te he escuchado decir que quieres dejar los estudios y triunfar en la música (I have witnessed it, so don't say now that you never thought such thing, I'm absolutely sure)

Te he oído decir que quieres dejar los estudios, y no digas que no porque te lo escuché decir muy claro.

Some ideas:

"oír" relates to the act of perceiving what you can recognize but also what doesn't convey a message or any kind of information: oigo ruidos

"escuchar" relates to the act of being involved psychologically and intellectually with the message conveyed in the sounds: escucho la letra de la canción

some neighbouring cases arise when the very existence of the sound is the message (oye qué ruidos extraños hace ese motor) or we're asked to be focused or invested psychologically or intellectually in hearing the sounds: escucha los pájaros; están alborotados; parece que viene una tormenta fuerte. ["Escucha ese motor" and "oye los pájaros" are also possible, and the "second best" choice]

it's usual -and correct by argumentum ad populum- to use "oír" when the exact listened message has been lost but the notion in it has been retained

it's also usual -but vulgar- to use "oír" with every act that involves the sense of hearing ("Oye con atención, chico, lo que dice esa" ---> I think: 'esa' must be Cheeta monkey)

it's also usual -but vulgar- to use "escuchar" with every act that have a human being in the other side of a communicational situation. (Hablá más fuerte que no te escucho ---> I think: that's really ill will!)

both vulgarities have their regions of choice.

[swr999]

Gracias aleC.