Investigation of hearing with whispered and colloquial speech and also tuning fork tests are used routinely by many otologists. A different group of otologists find the tests inconsistent and unreliable. This controversy has probably developed because the audiometer has replaced the tuning fork in hearing measurement. The hearing tests with the whispered and colloquial speech are also a little unsafe. However, they are important orientating hearing tests checking the result of audiometry. Some principles of the investigation of hearing with whispered and colloquial speech and the Weber- and Rinne-tuning fork test are shortly described. The necessary control of pure tone audiometry by tuning forks is pointed out. The value particularly in the diagnosis of conductive hearing loss, and the limitations of informal hearing tests and tuning forks are discussed.