Hello everyone,
and welcome to another episode of the absolute bestest series on German verbs and before you go like “Emanuel, ‘bestest’ is not proper English” let me tell you that I did that on purpose.
Because on purpose has a whole lot to do with the verb we’ll look at today:
absehen
Absehen has two meanings that are both super useful. And they’re both based on the same notion of ab – the idea of separation.
The other notion ab can have is downward and we’ll see that, too, but more on that later.
So, we have to see combined with the idea of separation. With a little bit of mind bending that does make sense as to not look at something. That’s kind of the first meaning of absehen. It’s not used in a literal sense though. Absehen or absehen von to be precise, is about not taking something into consideration anymore, not regarding something as an option anymore, and it sounds super uber formal and official.
- Ich werde von einer Anzeige absehen.
- I will refrain from complaining to the police.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wenn Sie keine Lust auf Drama am Arbeitsplatz haben, sollten Sie lieber davon absehen, etwas mit Kollegen anzufangen.
- If you don’t want drama at your workplace you should abstain from starting something with a coworker.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich muss morgen arbeiten. Deshalb werde ich vom Trinken noch eines Bieres absehen.
- I have to work tomorrow. Thus, I will refrain from drinking another beer.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The last example is a bit of a parody. Nobody talks like that in daily life and the verb is really only for official writing and thus pretty useless for learners.
But wait Emanuel, didn’t you say that the the two meanings are super useful?
Yeah, the verb as a verb is useless. But it’s a different story for the ge-form abgesehen. Because that is a super common tool to exclude an item from the whole picture. Wow, “exclude an item from a whole picture“… that sounds waaaaaaaayyyy more complicated than it is. Examples to the rescue.
- Abgesehen vom Hotel, war der Urlaub schön.
- Hotel aside, the vacation was nice.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Wieso kann ich denn deiner Meinung nach den Marathon nicht laufen?”
“Naja, du bist überhaupt nicht trainiert… aber davon mal ganz abgesehen bist du an dem Tag eh nicht in Berlin. Schon vergessen?” - “And why in your opinion can I not run a marathon?”
“Well, you’re not trained at all… and besides… you’re not gonna be in Berlin on that day anyway, remember?” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Wie ist der neue Mitbewohner?”
“Naja, der sauberste ist er nicht, aber davon abgesehen ganz cool.” - “How’s your new flatmate?”
“Well, he’s not the cleanest person but apart from that he’s all right.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
There are other words and phrases to express similar ideas, namely ausser and bis auf. Those work best as except, in contexts like this one:
- Alle außer Thomas trinken Bier.
- Everybody except Thomas is drinking beer.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Bis auf Sonntag habe ich jeden Tag Zeit.
- Except Sunday I’ll have time every day.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Abgesehen von and davon abgesehen used more somewhat longer things and they often have this element of not considering, disregarding.
Cool.
Now, this was already quite useful but nowhere near as useful as what’s coming up next- the other absehen which at its core this is about foreseeing the future.
absehen and Absicht
Now you’re all like “Dude, what the hell does that have to do with the separation idea of ab?”
Well, get ready for some mind bending.
When you look in the far distance, everything kind of blurs, right? Like… when there’s a forest somewhere on the horizon it’ll just be a green belt and you can’t make out single trees and when there’s a flock of super models at a mile’s distance, it’s hard to make out which one of…. wait, I think this just made NO sense.
Anyway, what I’m going for is that, in a way, the idea of distinguishing details is about separation. You visually separate one item from the other. And that’s kind of what foreseeing is. You look ahead, into the future and you can clearly distinguish things to come.
Now, absehen is about seeing something in the future, but it’s actually not a good translation for to foresee. To foresee just sounds way too epic and cool. Absehen is for boring, dry, bureaucratic looking into the future. Like… you wouldn’t use to foresee in contexts of, say, not making a project deadline. That would be odd in the meeting…
“So, how’s the project coming along?”
” I foresee that we shall forgo the deadline in favor of a new, much later deadline. It is known.”
“Are you high?”
Boring things like this are what this absehen is used for… if it is used at all. Because common, it is not.
- Sobald du absehen kannst, wie lange du arbeiten musst, ruf mich an.
- As soon as you can roughly tell how long you’ll have to work – call me.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Es war nicht abzusehen, dass das Projekt SO viel Arbeit macht.
- The fact that the project needs THAT much work couldn’t be foreseen.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
What makes this meaning of absehen super useful is the noun die Absicht.
Going by what we’ve learned about the verb, Absicht should be “something you can see in the future“. The real meaning has the element of planning added, so it’s not just about seeing, it’s about envisioning. Die Absicht means intention, plan.
- Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten.
- No one has the intention, to erect a wall.
(famous quote of Walter Ulbrist, a former prime minister of the
former East Germany, uttered in a press conference in June 1961, a few weeks before they …. erected the
wall. Duuuuh!… I tried to do it in his original Saxonian accent :)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Klimagipfel: viele gute Absichten, aber wenig echte Ergebnisse.
- Climate summit: lots of good intentions, but few real results.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
There’s also the verb beabsichtigen, which means something like to plan, to intend.
- Thomas beabsichtigt, sich bei der Firmenfeier richtig übel zu betrinken.
- Thomas intends to get shitfaced at the company party.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But what makes Absicht a MUST HAVE WORD is the fact that it’s the German word to express the idea of on purpose. The main phrasing is mit Absicht, but Absicht alone also works and there’s also the adjective absichtlich.
Note, that all of these often sound a tad bit negative. They’re not a neutral “on purpose” but more a reproachful “on purpose”.
- Ich bin mit Absicht zu spät gekommen.
- I came late on purpose/intentionally.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Thomas lässt manchmal absichtlich den Klodeckel oben, nur um Maria zu ärgern.
- Sometimes Thomas leaves the toilet lid up on purpose, just to tease Maria.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der kleine Junge hat absichtlich den Spinatteller runtergeschmissen.
- The little boy intentionally dropped the plate with spinach.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Aua, passen Sie doch auf. Sie sind nicht alleine in der Bahn.”
“Entschuldigung, das war keine Absicht.“ - “Outch, pay attention. You’re not alone in this train.”
“My apologies, it wasn’t on purpose/I didn’t mean to.”
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And while we’re at it… the number one word for the opposite idea, the idea of accidentally, is Versehen, the “wrong-seeing”.
So here are some examples for that, too.
- Willst du mir sagen, dass du “aus Versehen” meine Mails gelesen hast?
- Do you want to tell me that you read my mails “by accident”?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Ich hab’ versehentlich deinen Jogurt gegessen, sorry.
- I accidentally ate your yogurt. Sorry!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Das war ein Versehen. Kommt nicht wieder vor.
- That was an accident. Won’t happen again. (not for actual accidents)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So… mit Absicht and aus Versehen these two are really, really useful and you definitely need them in your active vocabulary.
Cool.
Now, this would be a great moment to wrap this up, but no look at a prefix verb is complete without a look at the r-version.
It’s really quick this time, I promise.
herabsehen
Ab doesn’t have an r-version. I don’t know why, but rab-something just doesn’t exist. It’ll always be the full her-version so we have herabsehen. And this is where we see the other notion of ab in action, the notion of downward. Because herabsehen means to look down on something. Seems like this could be a quite useful word, but in reality it’s rather rare and sounds quite fancy. I guess it works in the figurative sense of arrogance.
- Eine Kunst für sich – Flaschen sammeln und trotzdem auf andere herabsehen.
- An art in itself – collecting bottles (for the deposit money) and still look down on people.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
but for actual factual looking down, people would use runter combined with either gucken or schauen.
- Die Autobahnbrücke war so hoch – ich konnte kaum runtergucken/runterschauen.
- The high way bridge was so high, I could barely look down.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And that’s it…. this was our… . *Ding Ding Ding Ding what is this?! Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding…. OH. MY. GOD… caaaaaaan it beeeeeee?!?!
Yeah, the bell leaves no doubt.
German Bonus Round.
Yeah…. more German to learn. Aaaawwwweeeesoooomeee!!!!!!
Ugh.
abgucken, abschauen
So, German has sehen which is mainly to see but can also be to watch, and German has gucken and schauen. Which of the two that’s used depends mainly on the region and they both mean more to look, to watch rather than to see. In combination with prefixes, they sometimes do overlap with the sehen version and sometimes absolutely not at all.
In case of ab, it’s the latter. Abgucken and abschauen do not mean anything of the stuff we talked about above.
Do they mean anything?
Yes, abgucken and abschauen are about the idea of gaining knowledge or skill by copying what they’re doing. You “watch something off of someone” . They’re usually used for small things, like how to make a really good pie or how to close your laces with one hand… or for answers in a test.
- Den Trick hab’ ich mir von meinem Bruder abgeguckt/abgeschaut.
- This trick I stole from/learned by watching my brother.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die jungen Bären gucken sich bei ihrer Mutter ab, wie man Lachse fängt.
- By watching their mom, the young bear cubs learn how to catch salmon.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Wie war der Test?”
“Weiß nicht. Ich habe das meiste bei meinem Nachbarn abgeguckt.“ - “How was the test?”
- “No idea. I cribbed most from my neighbor.”
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Wer abguckt, kriegt automatisch eine 6.
- If you peek at your neighbor’s you’ll automatically get an F.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Note that they’re not used in sense of peeking on your own cheat sheet. It’s really only for looking at someone else’s stuff.
Cool. And that’s really it.
This was our look at the prefix verb absehen and the two main takeaways are the phrasing abgesehen von, davon abgesehen which mean something like that aside, apart from and the noun die Absicht, which is used for the German translation of on purpose.
As always, if you have any questions or suggestions or if you want to try out some examples, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
** vocab **
von [etwas] absehen – refrain from something (usually legal action)
abgesehen von X – apart from X, X aside, except X
davon abgesehen – apart from that, that aside
etwas absehen können – be able to make a statement about the future
absehbar – forseeable (dry sounding)
die Absicht(en) – the intention, the intent
beabsichtigen – to intend (sounds formal)
mit Absicht – on purpose
absichtlich – intentionally (reproachful sounding)
das Versehen – the small accident (small misdeed)
aus Versehen -by accident, accidentally
versehentlich – accidentally
abgucken von – crib, peek, “learn by watching someone”
I didn’t find a direct article or mention of the verb versehen. [not sure if I missed it somewhere]. In the dictionary section it defines it as “to equip something with something”, but no mention of anything ‘accidental’ as per the noun versehen. Is it known how this difference between noun and verb happened?
Also I wasn’t quite clear whether aus versehen is a verb or type of noun statement.
Thanks for your help
[ps. I hope I am not asking too many questions.]
You’re right, the verb “versehen” doesn’t really tie in with the noun das Versehen anymore. The dictionary definition you found is correct.
The reason is that the ver-prefix is quite divers and can add several seemingly unrelated ideas to a verb.
“versehen” used to have more meanings back in the day, but they slowly fell out of use.
The idea of “equipping” makes sense if you think in terms of “provision” aka forsight.
The idea of “accident” makes sense in light of “ver-“‘s idea of “wrong”.
I sort of want to say say “aber abgesehen davon” would this work or is it always “davon abgesehen” ?
Am i right in thinking “ohne absicht” und “vesentlich” aren’t exactly interchangable? Would it sound weird to say ” Ich hab ohne absicht deinen Jogurt gegessen” Cus my immediate thought was you could say “i unintentionally ate your Yogurt” in English (implying that you thought the yogurt it was yours).
Great question, and yes, both versions are fine and pretty much interchangeable.
What’s important is that the stress is always on the second word, but that doesn’t have any effect in terms of meaning.
“ohne Absicht” isn’t all that idiomatic in daily life situations. I don’t think I ever use it, except in
There’s a theoretical double meaning with “ohne Absicht”, one being “accidentally” and the other “without agenda”. But here I would read it as “accidentally” because of the context.
Thomas lässt manchmal absichtlich den Klodeckel oben, nur um Maria zu ärgern.
Now you’ve made me curious, did you write Klodeckel instead of Klositz by mistake? or is this something germans actually do? I’ve never heard of anyone leaving the toilet lid closed and it confuses me as to why anyone would find that favourable. In fact, leaving the lid closed seems to me like a perfect subtle way to drive someone insane. Imagine going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and inadvertently sitting down on that cold dirty lid haha
I like the lid closed actually, it’s how I grew up.
It’s mostly out of habit, but some toilets do smell and then having the lid closed makes a big difference :).
And yes, I have sat down on the cold lid before, but only at home, so it was pretty clean.
By the way… I call the Klositz “Klobrille”. That’s the standard for it at least in Berlin region. “Klositz” strikes me as Austrian or Bavarian.
Interesting but not too surprising. I know Germans are much more obsessive about cleanliness in general, but especially when it comes to the toilet.
It was a huge culture shock for me to learn that you guys use a toilet brush to scrub down the toilet bowl after every single time you take a shit. I kinda do understand it though, since German toilets are all eco-friendly and have basically no water in them to cushion the fall and prevent stains.
But man… the gross/inconvenient things you guys do every day to protect the environment. And then to ultimately still do monumentally more environmental harm than Canadians by phasing out nuclear power in favour of coal xD Your politics confuse really me
I really don’t understand that pro coal, no nuclear stance we have at the moment, but I suspect it’s just politics and people try to get good concessions for allowing nuclear back on.
I would expect nuclear use to be given an extension in fall, but we shall see.
As for scrubbing the toilet… every single country I have been to in Europe so far (maybe 10) does that and the toilets looks more or less the same, so Germany doesn’t have particularly little water in it :).
I meant compared to American toilets which use a different design. Our toilets average around 10 litres of water per flush, though older models used up to 30. German toilets only use something like 3 litres i believe
Oh, yeah, in terms of water per flush, there are definitely differences.
I thought you meant the water that is sitting in the bowl, which would me that the bowl size and shape is vastly different.
Another great entry! I’d love to see one for ansehen, too – seems super popular (+ das Ansehen, die Ansicht, etc)…
Never mind (#blushing bitmoji), found it!
https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning-ansehen/
Ich glaube, dass die Bedeutung von “abgucken, abschauen” auch mit “absehen” funktioniert:
Sie sehen es den Anderen ab. They learn it by watching others do it.
Ist das richtig?
Ich habe das noch nie so gehört, und ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob ich es verstehen würde. Ich glaube, ich würde denken, dass es eine falsche “absehen von” (refrain from)-Formulierung ist.
In diesem Beispiel:
• Ich werde von einer Anzeige absehen.
• I will refrain from complaining to the police.
Ist “eine Anzeige” so spezifisch wie “complaining to the police”?
It’s actually a legal term, so it’s not just a random call about neighbors that are too loud but a filed accusation.
Great post! I was wondering if you could explain the difference between “von etwas absehen” and “etwas unterlassen” in terms of refrain from?
Nice question!! So “unterlassen” sounds more immediate and hands on to me. You can “unterlassen” something that you’re already doing. “von etwas absehen” sounds more like you’re not going to take a certain course of action, and it doesn’t work for impulsive, direct stuff. Both sound somewhat formal though and are not used much in daily life.
– Ich bitte Sie, das zu unterlassen.
This could be a note on the door of a neighbor.
Wann benutzen wir “sich abguken/ abschauen” statt “abgucken/ abschauen”? Hängt das von der Bedeutung ab?
Wenn der Fokus auf der Idee von Lernen ist, dann ist es “sich abgucken”. Wenn es nur ums “peeking” geht, dann “abgucken” ohne “sich”
Ich versuche Deutsch zu sprechen, aber es ist schwer hier in Sud Florida. Ich bin neu als ein student — Ich wird Deutschland besuchen, hoffe ich — so vielen dank fur dieser ‘site’. Richard Rosen
Willkommen hier! Ich drück’ dir die Daumen, dass das mit Deutschland besuchen klappt :)
So very many thanks for the kind souls that paid extra so I have a chance to learn through this site! I really couldn’t afford membership, and now that I’ve just moved to Germany I need to learn as fast as I can. It’s excellent and you are all excellent. :)
Ist verabsehen und ohne Absicht gleich?
Du meinst “aus Versehen” und “ohne Absicht”? Ja, die beiden sind gleich. “verabsehen” gibt es nicht :)
Absehen davon, dass der Raum super war. Ist das korrekt?
Nicht ganz. Es ist “Abgesehen davon, dass der Raum super war…”
und dann muss noch etwas kommen. Something has to come still. Bis jetzt ist dein Satz so wie das hier:
– “The fact that the room was great aside…”
Now you’d have to continue. It’s not a complete sentence yet.
Herabsiehst du mir! Ist das korrect oder falsch ?
Das ist falsch. “herabsehen” ist trennbar, und es kommt immer in Kombination mit “auf”
– Der Mann sieht auf mich herab.
– The man looks down on me.
Du hast Imperativ versucht, richtig?
Can you use absehen like those villains in movies?:
“I really wouldn’t do that if I were you?”
“Davon würde ich absehen” (?)
*”I really wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
(Ignore random question mark)
Hmm… technically yes, but it doesn’t quite have the right tone. It would sound like a super literate super-villain, one that pontificates all the time :). It would work for a bunch of Bond villains, too, I guess. With their slightly ironic composure. But the better pick is “Ich würde das lassen/nicht machen”
“Davon würde ich dir abraten, muhahaha.”
wand (n.)
c. 1200, from Old Norse vondr “rod, switch” (cognate with Gothic wandus “rod,” Middle Swedish vander), from Proto-Germanic *wend- “to turn,” see wind (v.1)). The notion is of a bending, flexible stick. Compare cognate Old Norse veggr, Old English wag “wall,” Old Saxon, Dutch wand, Old High German want, German Wand “wall,” originally “wickerwork for making walls,” or “wall made of wattle-work” (an insight into early Germanic domestic architecture). Magic wand is attested from c. 1400 and shows the etymological sense of “suppleness” already had been lost.
Why do you post that here at “absehen” and not under “wenden” ;)?
It was a mistake..i’ll post it on wenden dude thanks
Dank dir :)
Sorry, i thought u got angry as it maybe confused thé others as to thé idea you were trying to convey….germains are sehr sensitive about thé copyright man;). Thank u for clarifying…
https://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=wind&allowed_in_frame=0
Hey man, I moved one of your comments to the trash since it was copy paste from Etymonline.com. Google has a problem with these kind of long paragraphs (duplicate content) and might punish me for it by lowering my listing. Not a big deal but next time, just pick an excerpt and then add the link.
But thanks a lot for looking this up and sharing it. I really appreciate that :). Also, I think I missed the connection to magic wand :)
Oh, the bear, haha, oh, man, I cannot explain it but that was very funny, I did not laugh so much the whole day.
The last two verbs you introduced reminded me of another meaning they sometimes evoke. That happens when a shy person is forced to lay down their clothes in front of somebody else. In that case the other one will say: “Keine Angst, ich schaue Ihnen schon nichts ab.” or more casual: “Genier dich nicht, ich gucke dir schon nichts ab.” Which is somehow in line with “I won’t bite.” meaning that it won’t hurt if the person is nude. And more literally: “jemandem etwas abgucken/abschauen” = “to take away sth. by looking at somebody”. Well it is a proverb, it does not have to make much sense.
As you mention “Absicht” and “beabsichtigen” it should probably not left out that “absehen” also can have this “planning” idea. Mostly use in present perfect: “Ich habe es darauf abgesehen, ….” = “I have set my sights on …” or also with an object: “Sie hat es auf die rote Tasche abgesehen.” = “She has set her sights on the red bag.”
So really good article this week as always, and really, oh man, this bear, ich schmeiß’ mich weg.
Yeah!! I was kind of hoping someone would mention this “abgucken/abschauen” :). I don’t use it much these days but I did hear and use it as a kid quite a bit. Like.. if the female teacher would come to the dressing room for instance.
I have to say though, if an adult man was to say that to an adult woman (Ich schau/guck Ihnen schon nichts ab), that’s sounds a little odd to me… either creepy or super condescending. So learners… DON’T use it with strangers. Only with friends :)!!
Also vielen Dank for “es auf etwas abgesehen haben”. This one I really have übersehen :)
Americans no longer say this correctly very often, but we ought to say: “by accident” and “on purpose”. Prepositions–sind schwer!!! :)
Vielen dank, Emanuel!! :)
Camille
Oh ja, das sind sie (die Präpositionen). But wait, so “on accident” is never correct?
“on accident” isn’t even street talk or baby talk it’s just wrong, sorry. Think of an accident as “the means by which” a fuck up of some kind occurs, hence always “by accident”.
“On accident” ist immer falsch – nur “by” accident.
Good article, as always! Thanks!
A funny thing happened today. Well, not that funny… Just a few minutes after having read and heard your quote of Walter Ulbrist, I accidentally stumbled upon this article in today’s Zeit: “Großbritannien will Mauer gegen Flüchtlinge errichten”. History definitely tends to repeat itself, sadly! Hast du es mit Absicht gemacht? ;-)
Hahaha… let’s see if they do it. Maybe the could team up with a Trump administration and negotiate a discount :)
Ok, aber wieso “_von_ meinem Bruder” aber “_bei_ ihrer Mutter”?
Danke! Jetzt verstehe ich “es auf jemanden abgesehen haben”!
“von” und “bei” geht hier beides. “bei meinem Bruder” und “von ihrer Mutter” wäre auch richtig. “von” klingt ein bisschen “schneller” und “singulärer”.
Danke für “es auf jemanden abgesehen haben”… das hatte ich völlig übersehen.