Russian Vocabulary (and Wisdom)

How to say "to listen to (+ accus.)" in Russian

This Russian word is one of the top 1000 words in Russian. The complete list of most common Russian words is available here.

слушать

Meaning: to listen to (+ accus.), attend, examine, hear, try, obey

Pronunciation: [SLOO-shaht']

Part of speech: verb (imperfective aspect)

Rank: #270 (see frequency list)

The boy is listening to the music.
Photo by vagawi, licensed under CC GA 2.0

Example sentences:

Он слу́шает му́зыку.
He is listening to the music.
Студе́нты слу́шают ле́кцию по исто́рии.
The students are listening to a lecture on history.
Серге́й внима́тельно слу́шал меня́.
Sergei was listening to me carefully.
Ты ча́сто слу́шаешь ра́дио?
Do you often listen to the radio? (informal)
Он никого́ не слу́шает.
He won't listen to anybody's advice.
literal He doesn't listen to anybody.
Слу́шай, мо́жет, схо́дим в кино́?
Hey, why don't we go to the movies? (informal)
literal Listen, maybe we'll go to the cinema?
В э́том семе́стре мы бу́дем слу́шать курс вы́сшей матема́тики.
We'll be attending a course in higher mathematics this semester.
literal In this semester we will be listening to a course of higher mathematics.
Де́ти не всегда́ слу́шают, что им говоря́т.
Children don't always pay attention to what they are told.
literal Children not always listen to what they are told.
В э́том зда́нии слу́шали де́ло об уби́йстве.
There was a hearing of a murder case in this building.
literal In this building, they heard a murder case.
Врач слу́шает пацие́нта стетоско́пом.
The doctor examines a patient with a stethoscope.

Idioms and set expressions:

Слу́шаю! = Hello!; Speaking! (on the phone)
Слу́шай! = Hey!; Look here! (informal)

Related words:

слу́шатель = listener
выслу́шивать = to listen to the whole (of)
слу́шаться = to obey, pay attention to

Proverbs and sayings:

Бо́льше слу́шай, ме́ньше говори́.
Be swift to hear, slow to speak.
literal Listen more, speak less.

Verb conjugation:

Present Tense

I	слу́шаю
you (singular)	слу́шаешь
he, she, it	слу́шает
we	слу́шаем
you (plural)	слу́шаете
they	слу́шают

Past Tense

I, you (singular), he	слу́шал
she	слу́шала
it	слу́шало
we, you (plural), they	слу́шали

Future Simple Tense

The imperfective verb слушать is not used in the Future Simple Tense. Use the perfective verb послушать instead.

Future Compound Tense

I	буду слу́шать
you (singular)	будешь слу́шать
he, she, it	будет слу́шать
we	будем слу́шать
you (plural)	будете слу́шать
they	будут слу́шать

Imperative Mood (Command Form)

you (singular)	слу́шай
you (plural)	слу́шайте

View full conjugation table for the verb pair слушать/послушать

Phrase recordings: Copyright(c) 2011 MasterRussian.com. All rights reserved.
Word recordings: Copyright(c) 2006 Streit Goulnara, Streit Eric, Vion Nicolas. Copyright(c) 2007 S. Sakhno, N. Vion. Distributed under CC-BY.

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