PURPOSE: to study language comprehension in dysarthric subjects. METHOD: a retrospective, descriptive and qualitative-quantitative study involving 60 subjects, age ranging from 40-70 years. Data crossing was carried out including sub-tests of comprehension related to: spoken words (SWC), written words (WWC), spoken simple phrases (SSPC), written simple phrases (WSPC), spoken complex phrases (SCPC) and written complex phrases (WCPC). RESULTS: the higher the SWC, the higher the WWC; the higher the SSPC, the higher the WSPC, and vice-versa; the higher the WC, the higher the PC; the higher the SPC, the higher the CPC, and vice-versa. No associations with age, gender, SCPC and WCPC were observed. CONCLUSION: both comprehension and difficulty in comprehension are associated with the degree of complexity of linguistic structure.