Listen to yourself!

Question

Hi,

So I was doing this bit of translation, and I need to figure out how one says something like... 'Listen to yourself!' or "Only if he could listen to himself!" (by way of exasperation).

Please help, won't you? ?

Thanks Feliz and Julian for chiming in. A vote for each of you :D - nanai, Jun 21, 2013

Answer 1

I would use fijar in this context: ¡Fíjate lo que dices! / ¡Si sólo se fijara lo que dijera!

Gracias. - EugenioCosta, Jun 21, 2013

I wonder if the sentence with 'fijar' is more like idiomatic? Because that is what I'm looking for. Most likely the Spanish speakers don't really use the literal 'solo si escucharía'..but then maybe they do? So confused!! - nanai, Jun 21, 2013

"Fijar" in this case means "poner/prestar atención". In Mexico this kind of usage is very common, so I don´t it´s really idiomatic - 005faa61, Jun 21, 2013

Interesting Julian, I would never have guessed that fijar would be used in this way/such a way WEll, I've learnt something new and very interesting here! Thank you :) - FELIZ77, Jun 21, 2013

well, etc..sorry typo - FELIZ77, Jun 21, 2013

Answer 2

Hello Nanai,

I would say: Listen to yourself = ¡Escucha a tí mismo!

If you are saying this to a man you would say: a tí mismo /but if you are saying this to a woman, a tí misma

"Only if he could listen to himself!" Please allow me to correct the English a little:

If only he could listen to himself = ¡Si sólo podría escuchar a sí mismo!

or If only he would listen to himelf! = ¡Si sólo escucharía a sí mismo!

I'm sure a native Spanish speaker could come with better ways to say the second sentence!

I hope this helps

Answer 3

I think that Feliz's options with escuchar work fine. (For the English version I'd suggest 'if only he would listen to himself' - would in place of could.)

A couple of other suggestions for listen to yourself might be ...

¡Escucha lo que estás diciendo!

¡Escúchate!

Merci Beaucoup! Think I can work this out now with all your answers.Thanks! The reason I used 'could', the context is where it's being said about a deaf person,that if he heard himself speak,he'ld know what a liar he is.'Could' just seemed more apt here.. - nanai, Jun 21, 2013

Thanks M.C, I was beginning to think I had got it wrong after reading Julian's post ! I was beginning to wonder if I should give up Spanish if I couldn't even get a simple thing like this correct at my level lol - FELIZ77, Jun 21, 2013

@ nanai - ah then could is perfect lol, context is everything,usually we use this saying when someone says something so ridiculous or annoying that they obviously aren't thinking how it might sound to others so it would be a good idea if they listened to - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 21, 2013

themselves in their head before they spoke ;) @ Feliz - de rien :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jun 21, 2013