Expression "it's only hear say"

[Thinker]

Test No. incompl/inter-9 "Say/Tell", question 4

You shouldn't take any notice of that because it's only hear..........

(a) telling
(b) says
(c) tells
(d) say

Test No. incompl/inter-9 "Say/Tell", answer 4

You shouldn't take any notice of that because it's only hearsay.

Correct answer: (d) say
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Hello Alan and Torsten!

I don't understand the expression 'it's only hear say'.

Thank you
Thinker

[Torsten]

Hi Thinker,

'Hearsay' is information that people receive from other people by word of mouth. Oftentimes there is no evidence whether or not the information is true. You 'hear people say' something but you don't know how much of it is real.
Another word might be 'gossip' or 'rumours'.
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Haihao]

Hi,

Could you tell me the 'hearsay' here in 'it's only hearsay' is a noun or an adjective?

Thank you.
haihao

[Yankee]

I't's a noun, Haihao.

To use hearsay as an adjective, it would have to precede a noun:
That's hearsay information.

Amy

[Alan]

Hi Haihao,

You can substitute 'hearsay' as a noun with an alternative noun having the same meaning -'rumour'.

A
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English as a Second Language
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[RussianBear]

How popular is this word in the English-speaking world? I know the noun "rumour" (rumor) very well, but "hearsay" doesn't look that familiar to me.

[Alan]

Hi RB,

My, that is a big question! It's rather like asking: How long is a piece of string?

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
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[RussianBear]

[Alan]

Hi RB,

Forgive my flippancy in the previous post. All I can say is that the word is, in my experience, frequently used.

Alan
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[RussianBear]

[Esl_Expert]

Hello Russian Bear,

From the perspective of American English, I can see your Australian friend's point, but might describe it slightly differently. The expression "legal circles" suggests people such as lawyers and judges. I would prefer to say that the word "hearsay" is mostly used in legal contexts. In other words, it's not only lawyers and judges who use the word, and it's not restricted to the courtroom or law offices. People in the general public also use the word, but again, it is often in some sort of legal context or in a context with a legal "flavor". People in the general public do talk about legal battles and situations that could lead to legal battles, for example. It might also be used simply to say that what someone has stated to be true is not based on first-hand knowledge or solid evidence, and thus may in fact be completely untrue.

As for frequency of usage, it's not really an uncommon word. However, if I had to guess how many times I'd used it myself in the past year, I'd guess probably not more than 10 or 15 times or so. It's hard to say. I've probably heard it or read it more often than I've used it myself.

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"All truths begin as hearsay, as far as I'm concerned." ~ Matt Drudge

[RussianBear]

Hello Esl_Expert,

Many thanks for the detailed explanation. I got it.

[Shush]

Hello Esl_Expert,

Thank you for the explanation, now I can surely say that I understand the meaning of that word