"The passengers have to listen to all the announcements."

Translation: Les passagers doivent écouter toutes les annonces.

[deactivated user]

I dont understand why i cant say ecouter a. Why is a wrong

[hhzhang]

Unlike English, in French, you don't use a preposition between "listen" and the thing being listened to. You can think of "écouter" as translating to "to listen to", rather than "to listen". Therefore, it would be incorrect to add "à" after "écouter".

[JennyRusse1]

When you learn a French word, make sure you get an accurate translation and, better still, learn the word in the context of a phrase or short sentence. Écouter translates in English as ‘to listen to’. Similarly the English verb ‘to telephone’ does not need a preposition, but translates in French as ‘téléphoner à’. There is no rule to cover this use of prepositions; you just have to learn them.