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German: anhören vs. zuhören | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| tygerlily Newbie United States Joined 4467 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese | Message 1 of 8 29 March 2014 at 2:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello everyone,
I am having difficulty learning the difference between anhören versus zuhören. For example, would it be better to say: Ich habe den Podcast zuhören angefangen. or Ich habe dem Podcast anhören angefangen. Which is better (or are both incorrect)? Thank you for your help! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5711 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 8 29 March 2014 at 2:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Ich habe angefangen, dem Podcast zuzuhören.
-> the podcast had been playing for a while, but only when you heard a key word you knew you started paying attention. Ich habe angefangen, den Podcast anzuhören. -> you started listening with the goal in mind that you would finish the podcast (but you were interrupted or are still listening and don't want to be interrupted/you're slowly working your way through the episodes etc) Note the sentence pattern and dative/accusative. Edited by Bao on 29 March 2014 at 11:17am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tygerlily Newbie United States Joined 4467 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese | Message 3 of 8 30 March 2014 at 4:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Danke schön!
This does help clarify the difference between the two verbs. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4813 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 4 of 8 30 March 2014 at 3:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think there's something more to be said about the difference between anhören and zuhören.
(sich) etwas anhören: You would usually use anhören with things. e.g. Ich höre mir einen Podcast an. Wir hören uns einen Vortrag an. Ich habe mir seinen Vorschlag gestern angehört. jemandem zuhören: You would usually use this word when talking about listening to someone. e.g. Bitte hör mir zu! Die Studenten hören dem Professor zu. Er redet so viel, es ist schwer ihm zuzuhören. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4773 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 5 of 8 30 March 2014 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Would it be fair to say that zuhören carries with it the idea of paying attention
(usually to someone), while anhören is more neutral in that regard....you are "listening", but not necessarily paying attention? Anyway, thanks for both the question and the answers so far, even if I'm not the OP. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5711 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 8 30 March 2014 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't go so far as to say that. I'd say it's more like anhören carries the intention of listening, while zuhören carries to intention of trying to understand. In either case you are paying attention, but the level of attention is different. And because of that, the way you engage with what you can hear, and the way the action can continue and be repeated is different. I would think it awkward to use zuhören with things that are repeated the same way, because you would pay this kind of attention only once. And while it's used for listening to somebody talking most of the time, I would also use it for listening to any other stream of sound that carries specific information, for example if you're listening to a violin piece trying to identify the player. Anhören can mean you engage with the content, but it doesn't have to. It can also mean you engage emotionally, like when listening to music, or it can mean that you ... sit through something without paying much attention like when a relative vents about their job without ever accepting your suggestions how they might change things.
Anhören is used in a bigger variety of contexts, for example Anhörung means a hearing in a judicial sense. Maybe one of the differences is that when saying "Ich höre ihm zu" the focus is on the other person, on your relationship, on the respect you show to that person, on your trying to understand what is being said, while when you say "Ich höre mir an, was er sagt/zu sagen hat" the focus is on the content and that person has to convince you of the validity of his arguments. Edited by Bao on 30 March 2014 at 7:03pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6381 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 8 30 March 2014 at 11:52pm | IP Logged | ||
I agree. The recent few threads on finer points in German vocabulary and grammar have been extremely helpful for me, filling up the "gaps" in my German. I really hope they continue on the forum. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5265 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 8 of 8 31 March 2014 at 12:27am | IP Logged | ||
For language learning purposes, I'd stick with the excellent examples that Druckfehler has provided. I.e., use zuhören with people and anhören with things. Anhören (=lend someone one's ear; [patiently] listen to what someone has to say) can also be used with people, but is mostly found in literary German. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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