# Do you hear words in your head when you read? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333 "2010-05-13T18:54:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/61 "2010-05-14T11:31:37Z")
Hi, I’m Troy McClure. You may remember me from such movies as “You’re hearing this in my voice.” When I read fiction I can hear voices in various tones and accents. If it’s just an article it’s my own voice I hear, or sometimes the dulcet tones of Morgan Freeman. Good news everyone! I’ve invented a device that makes you read these words in your head, in my voice! ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/62 "2010-05-14T12:09:49Z")
I hear words when I read in the same voice I hear when I think. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/63 "2010-05-14T13:15:47Z")
I do. Especially (and even more so) when I’m reading something dialog-oriented like **Forrest Gump** by _Winston Groom_ or pretty much anything by _Mark Twain_. Less so when I’m reading non-fiction, or the newspaper, or one of my many technical references for IT-related stuff. I’d never even thought of this before, but now that I have reflected on it, I even have different voices for the characters in these books. _And_ I read fast, so I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/64 "2010-05-14T14:28:23Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I think he’s a freak of nature because he does hear words in his head when he reads. Wow, no mea culpa from the OP with 67% of the respondents being the freaks of nature like her BF. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/65 "2010-05-14T16:27:23Z")
Ah, but the others are disordered like me! ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/66 "2010-05-14T16:36:46Z")
I am totally amazed at how many of you are hearing voices when you read. I hear nothing. I see nothing. I just get information into my head. “Data dump” is a good description. And frankly I expected to be in the majority. Isn’t it astonishing how different we all are??? (as in, I am sane; y’all are nuts.) ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Booker\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71c47a/32.png) [@Happy\_Booker\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Booker_1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/67 "2010-05-14T17:19:58Z")
Actually, this is only part of a more interesting question. (Partial apologies for a partial hijack) I strongly suspect that the folks (like me) who hear words when they read also hear words when they think. My moment of amazement came when I discovered that some folks don’t think in words, they think in…in…in…something else. I just can’t quite imagine what. (I gather some others are kind of a mixture) I posed this once to a group of people that included a set of twins. Each was at the extreme end of the spectrum. One was wholly sound/verbal. The other was wholly not sound/not verbal. They were each utterly unable to comprehend how the other worked. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/68 "2010-05-14T17:30:24Z")
> [@Happy\_Booker](#): > > Actually, this is only part of a more interesting question. (Partial apologies for a partial hijack) I strongly suspect that the folks (like me) who hear words when they read also hear words when they think. My moment of amazement came when I discovered that some folks don’t think in words, they think in…in…in…something else. I just can’t quite imagine what. (I gather some others are kind of a mixture) Yep, I think in words. I mean, I can think of something and picture it, like a memory or a specific building or something, but I am also thinking words about whatever it is. And when I go about my day, I usually sort of narrate, sometimes even in third person, like I’m telling a story about what I’m doing. A very boring story, in most cases, but there you go. Those of you who don’t hear the words - do you find that you don’t have much interest in poetry or lyrical writing? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/69 "2010-05-14T17:44:10Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Even knowing that many people are like you, I still can’t quite grasp how that works. Aren’t descriptions of people and scenery frustrating? You picture a person, then learn they’re dirty blonde, then fat, then have one leg, and a hump on their back. Or it’s a forest, but it’s night time, and the trees are all burned up, and there’s a dead body over there… it sounds very tiring, trying to mentally picture everything in the story that way when by its very nature writing gives you the picture one piece at a time. It’s not an effort at all; the words come into my head from the page in chunks (something like a couple of lines at a time) and create the movie that plays out in my head as I read. > [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > I think this describes me exactly. Also, I never knew that some people don’t hear words when they read. Also also, since reading this thread, I’ve been trying to not hear words, but they are becoming more insistent in protest–it’s like when you become aware of your breathing and then can’t be unaware anymore (oh christ–maybe no one else ever becomes aware of their breathing!). Try focussing on swallowing - soon you’ll forget how to swallow. 🙂 > [@Superhal](#): > > I read about 150 pages per hour, or 2-2.5 pages per minute, which is apparently quite fast compared to other people around me. > > I don’t even see words when I read. I go into [a semi-trancelike state](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29) and the words actually form a movie in my head. I feel like I’m watching a movie. Yeah, that’s kind of what it’s like for me, too - I get completely immersed in a good book. I realized that I was starting to read fairly fast when I was picking books from the library based on how thick there were - a small book is hardly an appetizer these days. > [@filling\_pages](#): > > \ > > Those of you who don’t hear the words - do you find that you don’t have much interest in poetry or lyrical writing? I don’t have much use for poetry, but I love words. Nice, fat, juicy, descriptive words. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/70 "2010-05-14T18:46:40Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > Those of you who don’t hear the words - do you find that you don’t have much interest in poetry or lyrical writing? I read a great deal of poetry and in fact write poetry. I don’t hear the words in my head though. I READ them. Hearing and reading are very different activities to me. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/71 "2010-05-14T18:56:08Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > Yep, I think in words. I mean, I can think of something and picture it, like a memory or a specific building or something, but I am also thinking words about whatever it is. And when I go about my day, I usually sort of narrate, sometimes even in third person, like I’m telling a story about what I’m doing. A very boring story, in most cases, but there you go. > > Those of you who don’t hear the words - do you find that you don’t have much interest in poetry or lyrical writing? I don’t like most poetry, but I do like some, and I love some kinds of writing where it’s “all about the words”. I read much slower when I’m really enjoying the language, though - it took me ages to get through _The Seven Pillars of Wisdom_ because the language was such fun. It begged to be read aloud. I’ve also been reading the Zen stuff I’ve been looking into much more slowly than usual, as it’s more like poetry than prose - every word counts and is carefully chosen. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/72 "2010-05-14T19:08:52Z")
I went with “Something else.” I’m a linguist who is fascinated with phonology in all different languages. Whenever I’m reading either foreign words or unusual English expressions or dialects, I convert them in my mind to IPA. This is sort of an abstract system of representation, i.e. it doesn’t register as internally heard phonetics, but it is the blueprint for reproducing such phonetics if needed. I’m not sure if I’m explaining the distinction well. Perhaps what I’m describing is what you meant by “hearing words in your head when you read,” or perhaps not. But for ordinary English text, “General American” English being my native language, my brain converts text directly to meaning without passing through a phonetic stage. If the text itself contains clues of a distinctive accent-- not necessarily “dialectal” transcription spelling, but just a characteristic type of syntax or vocabulary-- e.g. even if it’s written in 100% standard English, but internal clues point to the writer being Irish or Scottish, say, then I am likely to run that through the phoneticizer in my mind in parallel processing with the text-to-meaning converter. When I’m writing fiction, though, and I’m aiming to capture the voice of a character who speaks with a foreign accent, or even an English accent different than my own, I do listen very attentively to the sound of their fictional voice in my mind, because if it doesn’t sound right in my mind, it won’t work on the page either. When I’m reading something in a foreign language, like Arabic or Italian, the gain of my mental phoneticizer is turned up all the way, because I’m always trying to perfect my pronunciation in the languages I study. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/73 "2010-05-14T19:16:07Z")
Urrrgh, **Zsofia** , now that you’ve gotten me paying attention to this, I can’t turn it off! Normally I don’t have it turned on except in the special cases I described. Now I can’t stop doing it while reading anything at all! Life goes so much smoother when background sensory information can be just tuned out. Always hearing words in your head when you read is one of those sources of internal background noise I prefer to do without. I guess I just have to wait until it subsides on its own. I sure hope it isn’t stuck permanently on. As I said above, when reading something that suggests a foreign accent either explicitly or implicitly, I like to turn on the mental sound because of my love for phonology, because I choose to pay attention to it. But there’s no point in leaving it on all the time. Like you noted in your OP, you can read faster without it putting a drag on the text-to-meaning processing. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/74 "2010-05-14T19:55:09Z")
My answer is a bit more complicated so I picked the 3rd option. I’m a woman, and I’ve understood that people read differently since I was a little child. In general, when reading forum posts, fiction, and most things really, I don’t ‘hear’ a single word unless I slow down or reread to relish a certain phrase, or because I didn’t understand it properly the first time. I read very, very fast (919 wpm on the screen [as per this rough test](http://www.readingsoft.com/)) and what I read plays as a detailed motion picture in my head. When I was a child, it was nearly impossible for me to read out loud as I couldn’t figure out how to get my eyes to track slowly enough for my mouth to keep up, and I would start to stutter or skip words. However, if I want maxiumum knowledge retention from material packed full of facts, I deliberately ‘read out loud’ every word in my head and it helps me remember. I do tend to retain less than some people at my normal, very fast speed. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/75 "2010-05-14T20:25:45Z")
Male. Yes, I hear the little voices when I read. They taunts me so… ---
**Author:** ![Redwing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@Redwing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redwing)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/76 "2010-05-14T20:42:38Z")
It depends, sort of. When I’m reading fiction, I don’t see the book or the words, unless I make an effort to do so–I watch the book the way other people watch movies, or more so if the author is particularly evocative. The more immersed in the book I become, the faster I read. It should be noted that when I misread a word, I’ve been known to construct scenes that don’t exist to anyone else based on that misreading. Non-fiction, I sometimes experience as a classroom lecture, and sometimes I just see the concepts as, well, concepts. The speed I read non fiction varies greatly between authors and subjects. I can get hung up on words in non fiction, and when I misread a word, it can take me a fairly long time to figure out what it was that I misread (I’ve had to go through a chapter letter by letter to figure which word I’d perceived incorrectly, and even then it can be a struggle to get it in my head the right way). Poetry is completely different, good stuff is like reading both fiction and non fiction at the same time, set to music, and I can still see the words on the page. I love poetry, at least the poetry that give me the full experience, though almost all serious poetry give me more than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/77 "2010-05-14T21:53:17Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > As a grad student, god I wish I had that ability. I have to read very carefully and slowly in order to absorb content. Oh, that’s different. 😃 I hate reading when I can’t achieve the flow effect, e.g. a non-narrative research paper. When I read research papers, I slip down to about 30-100 pages per hour. ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333/78 "2010-05-14T21:59:34Z")
No, definitely not, at least in English, which I read faster than almost anybody I’ve ever met. (I also don’t form images in my head when reading descriptive passages, FWIW.) Yes, absolutely, when I’m reading unfamiliar passages in Hebrew, which is not nearly as natural to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-hear-words-in-your-head-when-you-read/539333.md?page=3)