There is a third meaning: to taste. Examples: 1a. senti se ti piace questa cioccolata. or: 1b. assaggia questa cioccolata e dimmi se ti piace As you can see the sentence with /sentire/ is shorter and actually will be used much more often. - senti se la pasta e` cotta - hai sentito che buona questa lasagna? In my experience I never had any problems with those possible multiple meanings as the context always guided me. I remember an advertisement about a brand of wine, where the image of the bottle was near the ear of a 'feeler'. That was just advertising the state of mental confusion that alcohol might produce, and it was exactly done with the double meaning 'to hear', 'to taste'. I dislike advertisement, but honestly that was well done. In my view the lack of distinction intrinsic to the word 'nipote' (double meaning also here) is, for another example, something that sometimes causes greater problems.

It may seem trivial, but: you can know if from the context. E.g.: Riesci a sentirmi? = Can you hear me? Ho sentito qualcosa a riguardo = I've heard something about that Non ho sentito la sveglia stamattina = I didn't hear the alarm clock this morning Mi sento in colpa = I feel guilty / I feel bad about... Mi sento benissimo = I feel great Mi sento male = I feel ill Come ti senti? = How do you feel? Sento il bisogno di una vacanza = I feel the need of a holiday Sento che c'è qualcosa che non va = I feel that something is not right as you may have noticed "sentirsi" (reflexive) always translates into "feel". Moreover, there are expressions in which you use "feel" in English, but you won't use "sentire" in Italian, e.g.: I feel sick = Mi viene da vomitare / ho la nausea I feel sorry / I feel bad for... = Mi dispiace / sono spiacente

It is a bit confusing, you just have to rely on the context to give you a clue (in my experience it's generally reasonably clear which meaning is intended, but I have known misunderstandings to occur even with Italians, so don't worry too much about it).