Listen and hear distinction with 聽

[Fireloom]

As far as I can tell, Mandarin does not have a distinction between "listen" and "hear", whereas English does. To me this difference is important because it changes the English meaning a lot. For example:

 

"I hear music." 

 

"I listen to music."

 

The first example, "hear", conveys the meaning that hearing music was not deliberate. The music began to play, but I was not expecting it. However, the second example, "listen to", means I have chosen to listen to music. I expected it to play. 

 

Is there any way to differentiate between these two meanings in Mandarin?

[Gharial]

To express that meaning of 'hear' in Chinese requires the use of a complement (见 jiàn) following the verb (听). This verb + complement structure is labelled R.V. (Resultative Verb) in the ABC ECCE Dictionary, as the following screencap from pp38-39 of https://www.scribd.com/document/109344904/ABC explains:

 

 

 

 

Anyhoo, any half-decent dictionary will define if not exemplify these sorts of differences. For example:

 

tīng 听 TRAD 聽 V 1 listen ■ 他每天早上都听广播。Tā měi tiān zǎoshang dōu tīng guǎngbō. He listens to the radio early every morning. 听见 tīngjiàn hear ■ 我听见有人在花园里叫 我。Wǒ tīngjiàn yǒu rén zài huāyuán li jiào wǒ. I heard somebody calling me in the garden. (Tuttle Learner’s C-E Dictionary. Not sure about the 'early' there though LOL).

 

For loads of examples, all fully searchable, get the free Pleco dictionary app.

[mungouk]

My teacher calls it resultative complement; Chinese Grammar Wiki calls it Result Complement.

 

I think it's a really interesting part of the grammar, and I enjoy using it.