What’s the difference……

by  Mia Della Pietra (native New Yorker)

Mia teaches TOEFL Preparation and other courses at NYLC's Upper West Side location. She was born and raised in NYC and lived in Thailand for two years training Muay Thai (Thai boxing) and teaching English.  Now she enjoys meeting students from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds and loves finding the humor in the challenges of learning English. In her free time, she watches mixed martial arts, hangs out with her two cats, and eats as much boxed macaroni and cheese as she can.   

Am I missing class, or am I losing class? Am I learning English, or am I studying English?  These words have similar meanings, but they are not the same!  Here are some of the most common verbs I hear switched by my students, and here’s how you can tell them apart!  

Lose / Miss

These two I hear confused all the time!  A good way to remember the difference is that when you lose something, it is physical, or an object, or an idea.  You can lose your keys, you can lose your place in a line, you can lose your motivation and you can even lose your mind!  But when you miss something, it’s physically not there.  When you miss class, you are physically not in class.  When you miss your family, your family is physically not with you at the time.  When you lose your keys, your keys still physically exist!  You just don’t know where.  And when you miss your family, you do actually know where they are, but you are not with them. 

Learn / Study

To answer the earlier question, you are both learning English and studying English, but there is a distinction between the two!  When you learn something, you have understood and and now can either use it or explain it.  When you study something, you are continually developing your understanding of it.  You can learn new vocabulary words, and you can learn a new verb tense.  But once you had learned that new verb tense, present continuous for example, you would study it to prepare for a test.  You learn a piece of music, and you learn the names of the different chemical elements when you are at school but you study music, and you study chemistry. 

Hear / Listen

When you’re in class, you are listening to the teacher (of course!)  But what else can you hear?  You can probably hear cars outside on the street, an ambulance driving by, the other students turning the pages of the books, and lots of other sounds as well.  If you are listening to something or someone, you are paying attention to them.  If you hear something, this is just noise that your ears are open to, including what you are listening to.  So listening has intention, while hearing is passive.

Test yourself!
Choose the correct verb and put it in the correct form! 

1. I always  __________  my family when I hear this song.  It’s my mother’s favorite singer.

2. What did you say?  Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention, I was  __________ to music.  

3. Today I  __________  the difference between passive and active voice in my English class.  

4. I can’t find my metrocard!  I hope that I haven’t  __________  it!

5. For the last few months I have been __________ English in the morning.

6. Can you  __________  the birds outside?  They’re quite loud today!