GCSE English

Hear and here

?

These two words are often muddled, but luckily they're among the easiest not to get wrong!

Hear is what we do with our ears: listen!
e.g. "David could hear properly after getting a hearing aid."

Here is where you are at any moment in time (and is a place, like there).
e.g. "It had taken Andrew 5 hours to get here, but the journey had been worth it."

One subtle muddling of them is in shouting agreement to something someone has said.
e.g. "Hear, hear!" shouted the conservatives after their leader demolished the Prime Minister's argument.

"Hear, hear!" is literally used to command people to hear what is being said.


Advice and advise
Affect and effect
Bought and brought
Complement and compliment
Discreet and discrete
Hear and here
Its and it's
Lead and led
Less and fewer
Licence and license
Loose and lose
  Plane and plain
Poor, pore and pour
Practice and practise
Principal and principle
Sort and sought
Stationary and stationery - new!
There, their and they're
Threw, through and thorough
To and too
Warn and Worn
Whose and who's
Your and you're

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