"¿Ellos no oyen?"
Translation:They do not listen?
December 21, 2012
19 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
This discussion is locked.
olimo
214
There is no "can" in the Spanish sentence. Yes, "They don't hear" and "They can't hear" can mean pretty much the same in English, but from the point of grammar these sentences are different.
I think there's a slight difference, but many times "to listen" and "to hear" can be used interchangeably. For example, in English you could say "We listen to the radio", implying that it's intentional and we are paying attention. If you said "We hear the radio", it seems more like background noise. If it's just a noise anyway, such as "We listen to/hear the obnoxious car alarm", then it doesn't matter.