Meaning & use
hear out
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To listen to everything someone wants to say before you react or decide.
Grammar: Takes an object: hear out your friend. With a pronoun, put it between hear and out: hear her out, not hear out her.
Patterns
- hear someone out
- hear out someone
- hear someone out on something
Please hear me out before you get angry.
She heard out the whole proposal and then asked a few questions.
The manager agreed to hear out the customer's complaint.
verbtransitive
To listen to a full explanation or argument without interrupting.
Grammar: Often used in the passive: 'I was heard out' means someone let me finish speaking.
Patterns
- hear out an explanation
- hear out an argument
- be heard out
The judge heard out both sides before making a decision.
He was finally heard out by the committee after weeks of trying.
Just hear out what I have to say, and then you can disagree.
Word forms
| third person singular | hears out |
|---|---|
| past tense | heard out |
| past participle | heard out |
| -ing form | hearing out |
Common combinations
- hear someone out
- I know you're upset, but hear me out first.
- hear out a proposal
- The board heard out the proposal before voting.
- hear out an explanation
- She heard out his explanation and then forgave him.
- let someone be heard out
- In a fair meeting, everyone should be heard out.
Synonyms and how they differ
- listen to
- This is more general and does not always mean you wait until the person has finished; 'hear out' stresses patience until the end.
- give someone a hearing
- This is more formal and often used in legal or official contexts, while 'hear out' is common in everyday speech.
Opposites
Word family
- hearing noun
- An official meeting where evidence is presented, or the ability to perceive sound.
Commonly confused: hear out or listen?
hear out vs listen
Listen describes paying attention to sound in general; hear out means you listen until the speaker has completely finished.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'hear out' correctly?
Choose one answer.
With a pronoun object, the pronoun must go between 'hear' and 'out': 'heard him out'. Option A puts the pronoun after 'out', which is wrong. Options C and D add 'to', which does not belong with this phrasal verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hear out”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.