asculta

Asculta is a Romanian verb meaning to listen. It refers to the act of paying attention to sounds, voices, music, or spoken words, as opposed to merely hearing. The verb is used both in everyday speech and in formal contexts. It is typically transitive, taking a direct object (ascult muzică) or a person (ascultă pe profesor). The imperative form ascultă is common: “Ascultă-mă!” means “Listen to me.” The word can denote careful listening, as in “ascultă cu atenție.”

The term derives from the Latin auscultare, meaning to listen or hear, and reached Romanian through the usual Romance-language phonetic developments. This lineage is reflected in related Romanian forms such as ascultare (listening) and ascultător (listener) or, in some contexts, a person who pays heed or obeys.

In Romanian, asculta is a regular first-conjugation verb. Tense forms follow standard patterns; for example, present tense forms include eu ascult, tu asculți, el ascultă, noi ascultăm, voi ascultați, ei/ele ascultă. The past tense (perfect) is formed with a auxiliary plus the participle, as in am ascultat. The verb pairs with phrases like a asculta muzica, a asculta pe cineva, or a asculta o persoană cu atenție, illustrating its distinction from the related verb auzi, which simply means to hear without the nuance of attentive listening.

See also: auzi, ascultare, ascultător.