What is the difference between ‘listen’ and ‘hear’? (Alyepriya Sabui, Hoogly)

Hearing is an unconscious act. As you are reading this, you may hear the sound of the fan in the room, or the sound of traffic. You may not be paying attention to the sound of the fan, but it comes and strikes your ears — there is nothing you can do to block the sound. As a result, you register or ‘hear’ the sound; it may or may not have any meaning. ‘Listening’, on the other hand, is an intentional or a conscious act. When you listen to someone, you pay attention to what they are saying, and try to make sense of it. In school, our teachers frequently pleaded with us to ‘listen’ to what they were saying. They did not want us to ‘hear’, but ‘listen’. This didn’t always happen, of course. When we were daydreaming in class, we merely heard the teacher’s voice; we were not listening to her.

I heard a strange noise in the middle of the night.

Would you stop reading the paper and listen to what I’m saying?

What is the meaning and origin of ‘let one’s hair down’? (K Jaiprakash, Kochi)

When you tell someone to let his hair down, what you are requesting him to do is relax. You would like him to enjoy himself; in the given situation, he doesn’t have to be careful and behave politely. The idiom, which has been part of the English language for several hundred years, is mostly used in informal contexts.

I need to go to a place where I don’t know anyone. Only then, will I be able to let my hair down.

Our boss will be accompanying us on the trip. No question of letting our hair down, I’m afraid.

When it was first used, the idiom applied mostly to the members of the gentler sex. In the past, it was fashionable among women, especially those belonging to the upper class, to grow their hair long. Before they stepped out of their house, these women spent a lot of their time putting their hair up. Using an assortment of pins and feathers they came up with elaborate hairdos. The only time these ladies actually let their hair down was in the privacy of their home —and that too mostly before retiring to bed. This was the only time when the ladies could be themselves. In the past, this act of letting the hair down was called ‘dishevelling’. Nowadays, the word ‘dishevel’ has a very different meaning!

Is it okay to say, ‘We went trekking despite of the rain’? (SV Kunthala, Nellore)

No, it is not. Although the two words, ‘despite’ and ‘in spite’ have more or less the same meaning, ‘despite’ is never followed by ‘of’. It is always ‘despite something’.

The children went swimming despite the heavy downpour.

Despite her illness, Deepa always has a smile on her face.

‘In spite’, on the other hand, is always followed by ‘of’.

The children went swimming in spite of the heavy downpour.

In spite of her illness, Deepa always has a smile on her face.

“One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody’s listening.”

-Franklin P Jones

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