Basic Details
Word: Heard
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: The past tense of hear: took in a sound with your ears, or got to know some news.
Synonyms: caught, learnt
Sounds like: herd (a large group of animals, such as cows or elephants)
How to Spell Heard
Syllables: heard
Tricky part: It is hear + d, not hear + ed, so heared is wrong. It sounds exactly like herd, a group of animals, which is spelt with e only.
Watch out for: heared, heerd, haerd
Memory tip: You hear with your ear, and ear is inside heard: h + ear + d.
Usage Examples
Example 1: I heard the koel calling from the mango tree at dawn.
Example 2: Have you heard that our school is getting a swimming pool?
Example 3: She had never heard of the word hyperbole before today's lesson.
Fun Fact
Heard does not rhyme with its own base word hear; it rhymes with bird, word and herd.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
When the teacher heared the thunder rumbling over the hills, she asked us to close the windows and switch on the lights.
a) thunder
b) windows
c) heared
d) rumbling
Show answer
c) heared. Hear takes only a d in the past, giving heard.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the meaning of the only correctly spelt word:
1. heard 2. wierd 3. beleif 4. recieve
a) to get something that is given or sent
b) a feeling that something is true
c) took in a sound with the ears
d) very strange or unusual
Show answer
c) took in a sound with the ears. Each of the other three has its i and e swapped (receive, belief, weird); heard is the only word written correctly.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
We all rdeah a loud crash from the kitchen and rushed in to see what had fallen.
a) hoard
b) heart
c) heard
d) header
Show answer
c) heard. Find ear among the letters, put h in front and d behind, and you have heard.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which word completes 'A ____ of cattle blocked the road'?
a) herd
b) hurd
c) heard
d) heared
Show answer
a) herd
2. Heard is the past tense of ____.
a) head
b) heart
c) hear
d) here
Show answer
c) hear
