聴く vs. 聞く

[Buntaro]

I just learned something from my Japanese friend and I thought I'd share it with everyone.

I wanted to translate "listen to music" into Japanese, first using hiragana, then kanji. In hiragana I got おんがく を きく。I was able to easily convert おんがく (music) into the kanji 音楽 but I had some confusion converting きく (listen) into kanji. I had always thought the kanji was 聞く (きく) but Google Translate kept giving me 聴く (きく).

According to my friend, 聞く is used when listening to a person talk, but 聴く is used when listening to music.

 

[Toritoribe]

You can check if the explanation you got is correct or not relatively easily by looking up the definition of the word in a dictionary.

きく【聞く／聴く】 の解説
２ （聴く）注意して耳にとめる。耳を傾ける。「名曲を—・く」「有権者の声を—・く」

goo

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dictionary.goo.ne.jp

Thus, 聴く is used for "to listen attentively" whether you listen to a person talk or music.
e.g.
教授の講義を熱心に聴いた (cf. 聴講)

Similarly, 聞く is used for "to hear without trying to" even for music.
e.g.
偶然ギターの音を聞いた (＝音が聞こえた)

聞く is versatile, so it's OK to use 聞く instead of 聴く, or even for the case for 訊く "to ask".

 

[Buntaro]

Thanks for the correction! I guess even native speakers (like my friend) get it wrong sometimes.

 

[mdchachi]

Thanks for the correction! I guess even native speakers (like my friend) get it wrong sometimes.

I don't think they're wrong, they just didn't explore every nuance with you. In general if you're listening to music, you're paying attention to it. If it's just on in the background and playing, you're not really listening to it even in the 聞く sense.

 

[Buntaro]

I suppose the same thing can be said of native English speakers, In English we have the two words effect and affect, and many English speakers have never stopped to think about the difference.

 

[johnnyG]

So I guess with muzak, or the infamous 'elevator music', you would use 聞く?

(and which would I use when I describe listening to my wife...! )