If you can hear voices and understand some words but not others, or you can’t differentiate between someone’s voice and surrounding noise, your hearing problem might be in your ear’s ability to conduct sound or in your brain’s ability to process signals, or both.

Your ability to process sound is influenced by a number of variables such as overall health, age, brain function, and genetics. You may be dealing with one of the following kinds of hearing loss if you have the annoying experience of hearing people talk but not being able to understand what they are saying.

Conductive Hearing Loss

When we tug on our ears, continuously swallow, and say again and again to ourselves with increasing aggravation, “something’s in my ear,” we could be experiencing conductive hearing loss. The ear’s ability to conduct sound to the brain is decreased by problems to the middle and outer ear like wax buildup, ear infections, eardrum damage, and buildup of fluid. You may still be able to hear some people with louder voices while only partly hearing people with lower voices depending on the severity of your hearing loss.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Unlike conductive hearing loss, which affects the middle and outer ear, Sensorineural hearing loss affects the inner ear. Sounds to the brain can be stopped if the auditory nerve or the hair like nerves are injured. Sounds can seem too loud or soft and voices can sound too muddy. You’re suffering with high frequency hearing loss, if you have a hard time hearing women and children’s voices or can’t differentiate voices from the background noise.