Escuchar is a regular -ar verb in Spanish.
Practice escuchar free →Escuchar means 'to listen (to)', and it is a regular -ar verb that — like mirar — already includes its preposition: escucho música (I listen to music), with no separate 'to' needed. It is central to the hobbies and free-time topics and to the listening skill itself. Escuchar implies active listening, whereas oír means simply to hear. The command ¡escucha! ('listen!') is everyday spoken Spanish. Because it is regular and high-frequency, escuchar is easy to use across tenses to describe what you listen to now, listened to recently, and used to listen to.
Quick facts
Escuchar (to listen) is a regular -ar verb.
Real sentences across different tenses — the kind of thing you'd actually say or write.
Escucho música (I listen to music). No 'to' needed.
Escuchar (listen) vs oír (hear).
¡Escucha! (listen!).
Ideal for free-time answers about music and podcasts.
Fixed expressions worth knowing — they come up in listening, reading and writing tasks.
Idiomatic expressions
Escuchar means 'to listen (to)', and in Spanish you listen to a thing without any preposition — escucho la música, never 'escucho a la música' — but you do listen to a person: escucho a mi madre. Learners who translate 'to listen to' word-for-word add a stray a, which examiners mark down. The verb itself is fully regular.
escuchar is a regular -ar verb — it follows the standard -ar pattern in every tense. That makes it a good one to drill: if you know escuchar, you know the template for all regular -ar verbs.
Type conjugations from memory and get instant feedback. That's how you actually build the automatic recall the exam needs — not from reading tables.
Practice escuchar now →Three questions, no account needed. Type the form, then press Enter or tap Check.
yo: escucho, tú: escuchas, él: escucha, nosotros: escuchamos, vosotros: escucháis, ellos: escuchan
The past participle is escuchado (he escuchado) and the gerund is escuchando (estoy escuchando).
Verbs that are easy to confuse with escuchar or that behave like it.
Escuchar is on the AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas GCSE Spanish vocabulary lists. Compare the exam boards.
Written by Daniel Holmes for GCSE & A-Level Spanish students.