見える 見られる 聞こえる 聞ける
 

Just as the title suggests, I don't think I quite understand the difference between them. I've been told that there is some difference in terms of 'effort' when using either 見えます and みられます or きけます and きこえます.
I remember that the connotations of using みえない is that it implies that you are blind...can someone show me a clear distinction between them?

well:

見える = (1) s.th. or s.o. is visible (intransitive) and (2) to be able to see
見る = to look (transitive)
見られる = potential form of 見る = to be able to see

same goes for

聞く = to hear
聞こえる = can be heard

and

聞ける = to be able to hear

What Caerula said is correct.

Though I think it might be easier to translate mieru into "(to be) visible" and kikoeru into "(to be) audible"

That´s right - you´re word choice hits the bull´s eye :vsign:

.

Good point and no one so far has addressed it. Though I am not a Japanese-learner, I seriously doubt that the "English translations" that have been given above would help you actually use these verbs correctly in the right situations.

見える: Takes some effort. Something is small, blurry, far away, etc. but you can (manage to) see it.

見られる: Takes no effort. It is either something is there or not there, such as the availability of TV broadcasting in remote areas.

聞ける: Takes some effort. "If you go deep in the mountains of eastern parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, you can hear English pretty much the way it was spoken in England 200 years ago. You cannot hear it anywhere else, not even in England."

聞こえる: No effort. As Ronin4hire stated, it talks about whether or not something is audible to you. "Loud enough or not" is the question.

In certain situations, however, I must admit that not a few native speakers do use the two verbs in each pair interchangeably.

It can imply that but not always. As I stated above, even someone with a good eye vision cannot see everything if it is very small, blurry, etc.

Tell me about it! I read that first response by caerula and thought to myself "this doesn't explain anything at all!" OP asks how 見える and 見られる are different and caerula says "well 見える means to be able to see but 見られる means to be able to see."

(Note: I mean to cast no aspersions on caerula's abilities. Just that the specific explanation didn't actually explain anything.)

My kids use 「みえない！」all the time when they can't see the flashcards or they forget their glasses and can't see the board clearly.

Oh well, so I´ll better leave any future explanations to the two of you. No worries, I don´t feel offended in any way - my abilities are growing bit by bit, thats a good thing to say. ;)
I just should have read that opening thread more carefully - I simply overlooked the phrase, masaegu marked in red. So indeed my post wasn´t the answer of the core issue.

Like..... OMG!!!

It's like this one time~... when that one person didn't completely answer the question... and we were like..... Oh.My.God..... hellOOOO~~~!!!!... OMG it was SOOO funny.