You know when you don’t hear what someone says and so you ask them to repeat it …

[StressfulBedtimes]

Why do they then go on to only repeat half the sentence? Or even worse, and in DPs case, just one word from it?!

This just happened and happens regularly;
I’m in the bedroom and he’s in the bathroom
DP: mmmhhhdbdffg
Me (walking into the landing): what did you say?
DP: earbuds
Me: 🤨 what about them? I didn’t hear what you said
DP: I asked about the earbuds
Me: what about the earbuds!?! 😤
etcetc

Why? Why not just repeat the whole sentence the first time and save us all this

If you do this - do you realise how infuriating you are?!

My exH would shout a question for example, "do we have any apples" I'd shout back "no" and he'd hear me but every time shout back "no ??" even though he'd clearly heard me.

Now dd does the same thing 😢 drives me crazy.

My DH does the opposite. If I've not heard, he doesn't repeat it, he explains it like I've heard, but not completely understood.

I can't think of an actual example now but something like this

Him - Do you want to have dinner with Fred and sally on the 23rd

Me - sorry, didn't hear you, dinner with who?

Him - my friends from uni, they're coming in to town because it's her mum's birthday so they've suggested having dinner

Me - yes but who, I didn't hear their names.

Him - you've met them, remember? At John and Sarah's wedding?

Me - WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

You can't sort out tinnitus.

But thanks for the kind words about people like me.

OMG my husband does this and it drives me crazy.

Me: “Sorry, I didn’t hear a word of that”
DH: <repeats one or two words>
Me: 😡

Why does he do this?

is it because he wasn't listening initially?

I have ears like a lynx but do this to mum when I've zoned out. It isn't that she didn't speak clearly, I just wasn't mentally present.

I couldn't live with someone and have my brain switched on all the time.

Yes, I have tinnitus too - it's the pits, isn't it?

With the other examples here, I honestly think people are losing the ability to communicate clearly. You see it on here all the time. People answer things so bizarrely, I think they have posted on the wrong thread.

Just as bad is when you say a long sentence or sentences and it’s only at the end people say ‘sorry what did you say’. Which fucking bit?!

Normally i'd agree with you but in this instance, the husband was talking to his wife in a different room and through the wall - it's hardly surprising she didn't hear him.

OP - don't be spoken at through a wall! Ignore it until he can be bothered to come to the same room as you, lazy thing! (him)

I agree, I think this is worse in my experience! All infuriating though.

This. <glares at DH>

It's always the beginning for me - if I'm immersed in a task or not 'switched on' - prepared to listen - I only tune in about halfway through the sentence. So I'll say quite clearly, "sorry, I didn't hear the beginning of that?" only to be fed the last three words. Again. So infuriating!

I'm a perfectionist and so when I ask someone to repeat something, I want them to literally repeat it, not frame the sentence a different way or explain it to me - because I want to figure out which bits I failed to hear the first time.

So I'll hear DH say: "Blah di Blah di Blah tomorrow"
I ask him to repeat it, and he'll say "Oh I was just wondering what you wanted to do about tomorrow"

And I have to say - ok, I understand the question, but PLEASE repeat exactly what you said otherwise I'll never know what "Blad di Blah di Blah" was.

Am I weird?

Apologies for my insensitive comment. My mum is staying with us for two weeks (& is getting on my nerves for other reasons) & refuses to wear her hearing aid because "she hasn't worn it in 10yrs because she doesn't have a hearing problem", then proceeds to shout and make me repeat everything.

You can take steps to remedy this situation.

You can speak a bit more clearly, emphasise the consonants a little, stop yourself from talking too fast and letting the ends of sentences trail off into mumbledom. You can make sure your face is in view and never, ever turn your back and walk into another room when talking, or worse, fiddle with your face when talking so your lips are hidden. You can engage properly with the person you are talking to and take the time and trouble to make sure they understand you.

Speaking as someone born with a hearing loss, I can tell you that my brain is already doing its level best to fill in the gaps that are left by the faulty wiring in my ears, and it can be exhausting. I wear hearing aids too, but they are aids, not magic wands, and they have downsides. They also do not help everyone. Hearing is not that easily ‘sorted’.

To be blisteringly frank, if you aren’t prepared to work as hard to make yourself understood as hearing-impaired people do to understand you, then I find that attitude not merely infuriating but utterly selfish.

Oh God my dd has quite a low voice anyway but it gets lower as she goes on so I always miss the last couple of words. So I get 'Oh by the way mum I was wondering if I can mumble mumble mumble mumble.' I say what was that I missed the last but so she starts again and I still don't get the last bit. Every conversation, every day. Infuriating!

,

Oooooor... you ask them to repeat it because you didn't hear what they said

and they assume you didn't understand (even though you said please repeat that I didn't hear it properly) and go into a long-winded explanation [eyeroll]

Sorry, I posted without reading your latest apology 😳but as you can see, a lifetime of casual discrimination means this is a sensitive subject for me. Elderly people often can’t get benefit from hearing aids as age-related cognitive changes mean their brains can’t adjust so well.

I have auditory processing issues. It's not necessarily that I didn't hear, but it takes my brain extra time to process sentences sometimes - it's not something I can "sort", and it comes across as hurtful when you imply it's something people are personally failing to fix. People can't always control how they process information.

I think mum needs a hearing aid but she refuses to even consider the possibility.

one of the neighbours nearly broke in once, he knew she was there in the lounge but she had the TV on so loud, she didn't hear the phone or the bell.

Ha! If only it was that easy. I also have tinnius and after several appointments and a MRI scan have been told by NHS and my private health insurance there is nothing they can do, apparently hearing is fine and hearing aids wont help, it is my brains auditory processing that is knackered.

Believe me it is much more infuriating not to mention embarrassing, demoralising, awkward, isolating and depressing to have to ask people to repeat themselves constantly or have to avoid going out with the girls, or work events etc because you can barely hear in larger groups or noisy places, when there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Thankfully most people are unlike you and are more understanding.

My husband automatically says 'sorry?' to everything I say whether he heard me or not. Drives me fucking mental.
thats a processing issue rather than hearing, surely.

my dh mumbles. It drives me mad. My hearing is fine. I can hear perfectly well at work and with other people. Yet I frequently have to ask my mumbly dh to repeat himself and it is infuriating.

Yes this!!!

"Please repeat what you just said"
[launches into a big convoluted explanation of what they just said]

"Which bit of the word 'repeat' don't you understand?"

I can’t remember ever being asked to repeat myself. DH is often asked.

He thinks I have a hearing issue!

My boyfriend does this 🙃😂