BE 597: Hear All About it! How to Use "Heard" at Work

This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 597. Hear all about it. How to use heard at work. Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English.

Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Aubrey and Michelle, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA.

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Take our free two-minute fluency quiz today. Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E. Hello, Michelle. How are you?

Hey, Aubrey, I'm doing well. I have a question, though. Have you heard about the new AI tools people are using? Some, yes. I use some new AI tools. I actually just used an AI voice changer.

I had recorded something for a video, and I wanted it to be like an older man's voice instead of mine. It was just a joke video I was sending to a friend, and I found an AI voice changer where I could make it sound like President Biden. Oh, wow.

You know, the previous US president. I changed it. It was cracking me up. It was so easy. I just like plugged it in. Free AI voice generator. There were all these different people you could choose from.

It's like, wow, that's a fun AI tool. But can you like then take a... Like a random person? If you have like a sample of someone else's voice, can I do it?

Or is it only celebrities? On that website, you couldn't. But I know we can do that in descript that someone just reads a paragraph and then now you have their voice. If you want, it's crazy what we're...

Okay, this is scary. This is very scary. And I made one of me and my son. And then I had you like type in a paragraph of text for it to say and it was so creepy how much it sounded like me, but there were just minor things that were off.

I was like, this is crazy. That is weird. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Well, so maybe our listeners noticed, but I asked you, have you heard about? So today we are going to answer a question that came to us from YouTube from Sophia, who we absolutely adore.

Thank you, Sophia. She asks amazing questions. And I can read it for us. So she says, Hi, I'm Sophia. I'm a huge fan of your podcast. Thank you so much for breaking down difficult grammar topics in such a simple and easy to understand way.

I do have a quick question. Could you explain the difference between heard, heard of, and heard about? I often get confused about which one to use. Thanks again for all your help.

And Sophia, again, we adore you. Thank you for all your wonderful questions. This is a good one for business because we use these a lot. But Aubrey, even though they sound similar, do they mean the same thing?

No. No, they do have slightly different meanings. We use them differently in conversations, as Sophia has been seeing. She's like, I can tell that these are used differently, but I'm not sure.

So this is an excellent question. And we do use these a ton at work and in everyday conversations. So I am excited for all that you guys are going to learn here today.

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Let's get into it, Aubrey. So number one is this base one, right? Number one is heard. So just heard on its own. This means you received information. So it doesn't usually matter where it came from.

The focus is really on that information. Yeah. What else, Aubrey? Yeah, it can be used to discuss facts or hearsay, which is maybe like a rumor. And we often use it when we're talking about new or recent information, right?

Have you heard about? Did you hear? Have you heard? And then you'll share what it is that you heard that you want to share. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, we use it when sharing the information we received.

I mean, also, we use it just to say, like, I heard you, right? Like, the information was picked up by my ear, right? And this is sort of trendy new slang. My 20-year-old daughter always will say, if I ask her to do something, I'm like, can you do the laundry?

She'll just say, heard. Yeah. That's it. I'm hearing teenagers do this. Can you do the dishes? Heard. And it's a polite way to say, I heard you. It's a shortened version of I heard you and I will do that.

I heard you. I understand. And I'm going to do it. I'm curious if this is happening more at work. Let us know, guys. Leave a comment. If you hear this, if you use it, it's more popular among the younger generation, I think.

But I'm so curious if it's going to be adopted because the teens are saying it all the time. Heard. Very interesting. So yeah, we use it when, you know, sharing information we received.

So this could be something like news. So for example, I heard McCormick just acquired Hellman's mayonnaise. Or gossip. I heard Anna in accounting may get laid off.

Oh, poor Anna in accounting. Poor Anna. Or updates. I heard the deadline was pushed to Wednesday. or just fax. I heard the office will be closed on Monday.

So yeah. And keep in mind, this doesn't mean you actually heard it. This is idiomatic. You may have seen this in an email. You may have, you know, who knows?

So just you found out this information. You discovered it somehow. You discovered it. Often it will be something you heard someone say, but not necessarily.

You might have read it in the news and you would still say, I heard that, you know, I heard McCormick just acquired it. You probably didn't hear that on a podcast. You probably read it in an article.

Right. Or it could even be social media or, you know, wherever on a post. Right. But we do use heard for even. Yeah, that is so interesting that we use it even if we mean that we saw it.

Right. Absolutely. Yeah. It's very idiomatic. I heard this. Who said it? Oh, I read it in an article. Yeah. So but how do we use it? So one way we might use it is have you heard and then the noun.

So have you heard the update? Exactly. Yes, I read it in the memo. Yes, right. Or I heard plus a full sentence. I heard the meeting was canceled. Or she or he or they heard and the sentence.

She heard the client wasn't happy. So let's do a little mini role play here and then we're going to take a break and get to the rest of it. Okay. Aubrey, have you heard the news?

No. What did I miss? I heard the CEO might be stepping down after the scandal. Ooh, yikes. Scandal. Scandalous. Oh boy. So yeah, heard the news. And then I said, I heard the CEO might be stepping down.

Oh my goodness. So we have these two structures that heard the noun and then heard the whole piece of information, that whole sentence. Yeah. Really interesting.

All right. We're going to talk about heard about and heard of just after we take a quick break. I have Ornod in 2013 built. We make clothes. Thanks to Shopify, we can run the company without having a lot of technical knowledge.

We can everything from the back-end to the front-end and sell products. If Shopify would be a bike-accessoire, it would be like the bike itself. It is the thing where you do it.

We run the company on Shopify. Start your free period on Shopify. Okay. So Aubrey, let's get into heard about now. So tell us about this one. Yeah. So this means you have details or information about a situation or event.

It's more specific than just heard. It implies that there's more to the information you have, a story, an issue, a situation. Right. So, and it actually can be used to start a conversation.

So for example, have you heard about the topic, right? Have you heard about the sourcing delays? Or you could say, I heard about the, and then the topic. I heard about the streaming issues.

Exactly. So very quick role play here. Have you heard about the complaints we've been getting? Yes, I heard the new app update is super glitchy. Customer complaints have been piling up.

So we used heard about and heard there. Yes, or so I heard about the client presentation. Yeah, it didn't go very well, to say the least. So you could have said, I heard the client presentation didn't go so well, right?

Yes, I actually really love this. I do this a lot. This is a very native, natural thing to do, at least in American English, where we will lead, we'll trail off like this. I heard about the client presentation and our intonation and

indicates that there's more here that we're not saying. And then the other person will probably share what they heard. Right, right, right, right. Exactly.

So then the third one is heard of, which we mentioned as well. So this is to be aware of something. So aware that something happened or exists. And it doesn't imply more knowledge.

It's just that you know of it. So I mean, really, Aubrey, this can be used to talk about pretty much anything. So at work, someone could ask you whether you heard of, like people, have you heard of our new VP?

Or companies? Have you heard of that startup? Or concepts? Have you heard of agile methodology? Or trends? Have you heard of quiet quitting tools? Have you heard of Asana?

Yes. It just means, are you aware of it? Mm hmm. Whereas heard about if I said, have you heard about our new VP? It's like there's more information, right?

It's not just yes or no. It's kind of like, oh, I have something more to tell you. Or if you heard or if you said, have you heard about agile methodology? You're it's not just you're asking, do you know more information about it?

Exactly. Yeah, it doesn't mean just are you aware of it, of its existence, like heard of does. Heard about is a little more like what do you know about it? Have you heard about it?

Not just are you aware of it? Do you know something about it? Right, right, exactly. So again, it can be used to say, you know, something exists, but not much more.

So you have limited knowledge. I've heard of the Mars company, but I'm not sure which candies they actually produce. So I know it, I'm aware. Exactly.

And if you wanted to say heard about, that would be different. You could be like, oh yeah, I've heard about the Mars company. They produce Snickers and Mars bars or whatever, right? Because if you say I heard about, you know a little bit about it.

Right, right. Or I've heard of her, but we haven't actually met yet. So I just know that she exists, but I know nothing about her really. Exactly. And if I say, oh, I've heard about her, I'm implying I know some information.

I've been told something about her, even if it's just her name and that she has kids. If I know something about her, I'd be like, yeah, I've heard about her. Right. All right.

So should we do a little role play, Aubrey? Yes, you and I just started working. I am actually working for your company here. We are meeting for the first time.

You're a business owner. Congratulations, Michelle. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Here we go. I heard you just... Sorry. No, I'm starting again.

Okay. Hi, I heard you just joined the team. Congratulations. How's it going so far? Thanks. It's going really well. Everyone's been super helpful. Oh, that's great.

Have you heard about the projects we're working on this quarter? A little, but I'd definitely like to know more. Oh, nice. Well, have you heard of Acme Corporation, their biggest client at the moment?

I've heard of them, but I don't know much about what they do. Oh, no problem. I'll give you a brief overview. Nice. So this is perfect for showing how exactly we use these.

The first thing you said was just, I heard you just joined the team. So here's where we just say heard. You saw an email, maybe you were told, right? Even if it's your company, you might not be the hiring manager.

That could all be someone else handling that. And you were just informed this person has joined the team. Right. Yeah, exactly. And then I said, have you heard about the projects we're working on this quarter?

So basically, how much do you know? Do you know a lot about it? Or do you just know that they exist? I just want to get an idea. Exactly. And then you ask, have you heard of Acme Corporation?

This is just, are you aware of them at all? right um so it's just kind of a yeah do you have anything do you know who they are um so yeah really good stuff here guys check out episode 594 of the business english podcast that was vocabulary that will give you every advantage in the book so that was a fun one we did and uh give that one a listen to if you haven't already um takeaway for aubrey do we want to sum it down sum it sum it up for everybody Take away four, Aubrey. Do we want to sum it down?

Do we want to? Oh my gosh. Yeah. So yes, takeaway and let's sum it up. Heard is, you know, you just got information. You have received some kind of information.

You heard this. Heard about, you know, there's a story. There's more information here that you have. And then heard of, you're just aware of something.

Maybe you recognize a name. Exactly. Exactly. All right. Well, Aubrey, this was fun. And thank you again to our listener, Sophia, for that wonderful question.

And thanks, everyone, for listening to the show. Awesome. We'll see you next time. Bye. All right. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.

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