Questions & Answers about Я слышал этот слух.
Why is the verb слышал and not something like слышу?
Слышал is the past tense form of слышать.
- я слышу = I hear / I am hearing
- я слышал = I heard / I have heard
So in this sentence, the speaker is talking about a completed past experience: hearing that rumor.
Also, Russian past tense is formed differently from English:
- infinitive: слышать
- past stem + -л: слышал
Why does слышал end in -л? Does that tell us anything about the speaker?
Yes. In Russian past tense, the verb agrees with the subject in gender and number.
For слышать, the past tense forms are:
- я слышал — a male speaker
- я слышала — a female speaker
- мы слышали — we heard
- оно/это слышало — it heard
So Я слышал tells you the speaker is male.
If the speaker were female, it would be Я слышала этот слух.
What is the difference between слышать and слушать?