Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will have a look at the meaning of the word:
ansehen
Sehen means to see and an means at or on or to or in and we’ll go with… uhm… at this time. But ansehen is actually not so much the sum of its parts. The glamour is in the grammar. And that is not just a stupid rhyme by the way… those glamour and grammar were the same word once (don’t believe me? Check it here) . But then the Scots extracted the glamour, and ever since “grammar” has the appeal of eating sand. I don’t like grammar…it’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
But just like Tatooine is nothing without sand, ansehen is nothing without grammar.
So let’s take a look at the different meanings and how to build them. Sounds good? Cool.
etwas ansehen
This is the simplest ansehen and it works exactly like the word to see… so you ansehen something … or someone
- Ich sehe dich.
- I see you.
- Ich sehe dich an.
- I look at you.
And just like to look at it is used in both, in the general sense or in the specific “looking in the eye” sense.
- “Sieh mich an, wenn ich mit dir rede!”
“Mach ich doch!”
“Nein, weiter oben!” - “Look at me, when I’m talking to you!”
“But I am looking at you.”
“No, look higher.”
However, to look at is actually pretty broad and ansehen covers only a part of that. For people it works great and although you can do it with things, too, it would sound odd to me to say:
- Ich habe das Bild angesehen
This sounds like you just see the thing “picture”, you don’t see what’s on it. Or at least it is not the point. Or perhaps it is leaning face against the wall, so you don’t even see the actual picture. So in this case, ansehen is kind of something in between looking at and simply facing something. You have your gaze fixed at something and that’s about it.
If we want get more involved, if we want to really look at the picture as in, well, not just seeing it… then we need to make a little addition… a very very reflexive addition.
sich etwas ansehen
The infamous self referential mir (or dir or sich or uns…)
- Ich sehe mir das Bild an.
- I look at the picture to/for myself.(lit)
- I look at the picture.
This would be commonly understood as a looking at the “content” of the picture. And in general, we could say that the self reference adds the idea of observe. Sich ansehen implies at least some duration, it implies “thoroughness” and involvement of your brain. That is in fact quite a lot like to inspect. You see, specere meant nothing other than to look at in Latin. And the in makes it “more thorough”. The German mir( dir, sich…) does the same … just with a more personal touch.
Let’s look at an example with both ansehens back to back.
- Ich sehe meine kaputte Waschmaschine an und denke “Na toll, die war neu.”
- I look at my broken washer and I think “Splendid, it was new.”
Here, I just stand in the door and I look at the mess for a few seconds. Then you call the service technician to ask how much it is going to be and she says
- Ich komme morgen vorbei und sehe sie mir an.
- I’ll come by tomorrow and take a look at it /I’ll check it out.
She would never say it without the mir because then it would literally just mean that she is going to “look at it”… like… “I see your broken washer… that’s gonna be 120 bucks”.
Or here’s another example
- Ich sehe das Buch an.
- I look at the book (have my gaze fixed at it)
- Ich sehe mir das Buch an.
- I look at the book. (turn it around, open it, turn pages, perhaps read a chapter…)
In the first sentence, we see THAT it is, in the second we check out HOW it is.
So… sich(mir, dir…) ansehen means to look at in a more observing, personal sense.
And that is used much more than the version without the self reference.
- Ich sehe mir einen Film an.
- I watch a movie.
I don’t just direct my gaze at a movie… I watch them. You might find people who say it without the mir, but to me that would sound quite odd. And as soon as we’re looking at or watching at activities, it is plain wrong to leave out the self reference.
- The consultant looks at how we work.
- Der Unternehmensberater sieht an, wie wir arbeiten…. is wrong
- Der Unternehmensberater sieht sich an, wie wir arbeiten.
You cannot ansehen, how someone does something. That works ONLY with sich ansehen.
- Wenn ich mir so ansehe, was diese Firma in den letzten Monaten erreicht hat, dann muss ich sagen… da ist noch Luft nach oben.
- Looking at what the company has achieved over the last few months I have to say… there is still room for improvement.
Now, here are some common phrasings with sich ansehen.
- Sieh dir das mal an!
- Look at that!
- Ich seh’ mir das nicht mehr lange (mit) an.
- I won’t be taking/accepting/go along with that much longer.
All right.
So this is sich ansehen. One thing we should mention is that doesn’t work well for people. It kind of objectifies them and it doesn’t imply eye contact the way the plain ansehen does. Sich ansehen is what the doctor does with a patient. So a very rough rule of thumb would be… use ansehen for people and sich ansehen for things and activities.
And now let’s get to the third ansehen… which is a bit different than those two.
THE THIRD ANSEHEN
Now,this self reference we just had does feel a bit like those other mirs and dirs that German uses for verbs like kaufen.
- Ich kaufe mir die erste Staffel von Mad Men..
- I buy the first season of Mad Men.
- Ich lese mir die E-Mail durch.
- I read the (whole) email.
They don’t really translate and they make it more “personal”. In the first example I could just replace myself with another person. So I can by myself something or I can buy you something. In the second example that wouldn’t work.
- Ich lese dir ein Buch durch.
This is just wrong.
In case of ansehen, we’re dealing with the third… the meaning changes. And if we want to understand that it helps to think about an for a second. So far, it pretty much meant at in sense of toward. here, it still does but it is not so much my gaze that is directed…
- Ich sehe dir etwas an.
it is kind of like this
- I read something into you.
Only that in case of ansehen it is not an assumption… it is the truth I am seeing.
- Ich sehe dir deine Sorgen an.
- I can see that you’re worried, (no point denying)
- Man sieht dir an, wie müde du bist.
- One can see how tired you are.
- Man sieht ihr ihr Alter gar nicht an.
- She doesn’t look her age at all.
- “Poah.. ich konnte die ganze Nacht nicht schlafen.”
“Echt? Sieht man dir gar nicht an. Du siehst echt fit aus.” - “Boah… I couldn’t sleep all night.”
“Really? Well it doesn’t show. You look really fit.”
If you want to be more specific you can add the feature that gives something away… guess which preposition you’d have to use… exactly… an.
- Ich sehe dir an der Nasenspitze an, dass du lügst.
- I can see it in your face (lit: by the tip of your nose) that you’re lying.
So let’s do a quick recap…
- Ich sehe etwas an – I keep my gaze on something
- Ich sehe mir etwas an – I check out/watch/”observe” something
- Ich sehe dir etwas an – I can see/tell something by looking at you
And if this were TV you could see the mischief in my face now :)
crazy grammar fun
With three version that are so close, there sure must be potential to mess around… and boy oh boy there is. Specifically with the reflexive uses.
We’ve already seen that ansehen can be used with a self reference…
- Ich sehe mir etwas an.
But that is not the only self reference we can use…
- Ich sehe mich an.
So, what does that mean? Exactly… I look at myself … in the mirror for example. And could there also be this?
- Ich sehe mich etwas an.
No, because the mich is one of the many possibilities you can insert instead of something. It has the same function.
Now, sometimes we might be looking at ourselves a little more thoroughly, or a little longer… like … at your latest selfie “Man, I would be looking SO COOL if it wasn’t for my stupid chin. And oh god what’s that on the forehead?? Is that a … a wrinkle?”Of course we could just say that we’re analyzing our selfie… but, at least in theory, we could also use ansehen… with two self references.
- Ich sehe mir mich an.
The mich tells us what we’re looking at and the mir adds this thorough, observing touch. And although that sentence doesn’t sound very nice, it is poetry compared to the following…
- Sie sieht sich sich an.
- Sie looks at herself.
I bet you can really confuse people in your course with that sentence. Sure, it is awful German but on a purely technical level it is correct.
Now, how about this:
- Ich sehe mir mein Alter nicht an.
This could actually be two things… the looking at version
- I don’t look at my age.
That would make sense if, say, you have amnesia and you deliberately do not look at the age on your identification.
But the sentence could also be the third ansehen… so basically just like
- Ich sehe dir mein Alter nicht an.
Just with myself instead of yo.. wait.. I think it should be dein Alter, shouldn’t it? I’m getting really confused here. I guess that was enough crazy grammar fun for today :/… I just thought it could be helpful to see the extremes.
All right. So…we’re almost done for today. Oh… maybe we should have a look at words that are related to ansehen real quick.
related words to “ansehen”
First of, there is die Ansicht which can mean inspection or view but I’d say the most important meaning is view as in opinions.
- Er hat komische Ansichten.
- He has strange views sometimes.
- Meiner Ansicht nach macht das keinen Sinn.
- In my view/IMO that doesn’t make sense.
- “Süßes Popcorn ist besser als salziges.”
“Das ist Ansichtssache” - “Sweet popcorn is better than salty one”
“That’s a matter of opinion.”
As far as adjectives go, there is ansehnlich which literally would be “look at”-able, which is something short of beautiful, but outside the whole looks context it is also used to mean quite good.
- Dein Essen ist lecker, aber es ist total unansehnlich.
- Your food is tasty but it is no joy to look at/looks gross.
- Thomas hat einen ansehnlichen Betrag im Lotto gewonnen.
- Thomas has won a rather decent amount of money in the lottery.
Finally, there is the noun das Ansehen, which is the generic “nounified” verb the watching, but also a word for renown or reputation… in a positive way.
- Er genießt bei seinen Kollegen großes Ansehen.
- He is held in high esteem among his colleagues.
- Sein Ansehen hat durch den Skandal sehr gelitten.
- His reputation has suffered as a result of the scandal.
This Ansehen is kind of limited to certain phrasings though, so I’d suggest to put it on the passive pile.
And … I think… we’re done. Maybe one quick word about anschauen and angucken. Those two are colloquial and the use depends on the region. I, myself, for example would use angucken a lot and using ansehen for many examples felt quite unnatural to me and made me cringe a little. But for someone from the south of Germany angucken would be just as strange and he would much prefer anschauen. Ansehen is the standard though plus it is the only one that has the third meaning.
- Ich gucke/schaue dir an, dass du traurig bist… nope…
I don’t even know if people would understand that. Oh and ansehen is also the only one that works in the following phrasing
- Ich sehe das als Kompliment an.
- I see that as a compliment.
So… with ansehen you’re on the safe side but if you want to blend in with the locals just use whatever they use.
And that’s it. That was our German Word of the Day ansehen. If you have any questions or suggestions about ansehen or if you want to try out some examples that everyone can ansehen then, just leave me a comment :)
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
Oh and just to warn you… the whole “watching a movie” thing is rather complex… gucken, sehen, ansehen, anschauen... when to use which depends on the region but also on the tense and the phrasing.
Further reading:
- Reflections on reflexive – what are “reflexive verbs” and how do they work
- Word of the Day – “aussehen”
Seriousely i can t pay
You told me that twice per mail and I replied. Please don’t be impatient!
Another great one – thanks! So, if my wife comes home from a hair appointment, and I’ve been watching my daughter for a couple hours, and she is like “what did you guys do while I’ve been gone”, and I wanted to say “we watched Paw Patrol”…
“Wir haben uns Paw Patrol angesehen”
Does that sound right? Thanks!
Me personally would prefer “geguckt” but that’s a regional thing to an extend. “sich ansehen” for watching a show sounds fairly high register/technical.
Ja. Neues (Comment) für (the rest)
Teil 2)
1) Gibt es ein Unterwchied zweichen Anshict und Meinung?
2) Ich sehe dir mein Alter nicht an.
So this basically means I am educated and you are old?
3) what would look at sb in sth be. Eg.( I looked at him in amazement/anger)
Teil 3) kleines Beitrag
1) jdn. über die Achsel ansehen. (To look down on your nose) behaving as if sb is not good enough for you.
1) Not in the sense of “opinion”, it comes down to what’s more idiomatic in a phrasing
2) This means “I can’t tell my age by looking at you.” Doesn’t make much sense in English, neither in German.
3) That has nothing to do with looking. It’s just a matter of how to translate “in [mood/feeling]. Usually, you just use an adverb here.
– Er guckt sie begeistert an.
3.1)
“Achsel” is armpit. I don’t understand your example.
Sehr interessanter Wort. Hier blide ich Sätzen
Teil 1) Sätzen
1) Ich sehe die Frau an, die gerade meine pizza essen und das macht mir Wütend.
1B) Kommt Tiere mit “sich ansehen” oder ohne “Sich”?
2) Ich sehe mir an,ob dein Zimmer aufgeraümt hat oder nicht.
3) wenn ich mir an sehe, wie du dir benimmst, Weiß ich,dass Hoffnung es keine Mehr gibt. Derzeit ist es unansehnlich.
4) Ich sehe dir an an,dass du begabt bist. I sehe dir deine
Zweifel an.
5) Diese Ansichten ruinieren dein Ansehen and das kann nur als die Wahrheit ansehen werden.
1) “mich wütend” otherwise it’s correct if you mean that you’re looking at them.
1b) I don’t understand what you’re asking
2) Correct, except there’s a subject missing in the second part. Who cleaned the room?
3) Little mistake with word order, otherwise it’s fine.
4) Nice!
5) “… Wahrheit angesehen werden.” Otherwise correct!
Good job!
1b) I am asking whether animals (like humans) take “Sich ansehen” or to drop the “sich”
3) einen Hinweis bitte. Wo?
5) grammer?
1b) That’s interesting, actually. Animals are not really watching stuff in the way we watch a TV series. What they do is more observing.
I think in animal documentaries you’d find “beobachten” or “betrachten”. Not “ansehen”. That has too many human overtones
3) “keine Hoffnung mehr”
5) When I say it’s okay then it’s okay ;)
1b) I meant when we look at animal
Ich sehe einen Hund an oder ich sehe mir einen Hund an. But the misunderstanding revealed sth interesting. Danke
3) Ah, I have been told before that after “dass” must come the subject. (Which I had in mind as another tendency (not an obligation). Looking at it “Hoffung” is not subject
5) Understand Sir.
You might want to revise your sentence “And that is used much more then the more than the version without the self reference.”
Danke :)!
Ich bin Anfanger. Ist Duetsch sehr schwer ?
Hallo Emanuel. My question has to do with something I noticed in a previous post, the one about erst. In it, you used this sentence in an example:
Wollen wir eine DVD gucken?”
Why isn’t this reflexive or even angucken? I suppose that you don’t actually watch the DVD, but wouldn’t it imply that the action is reflexive?
The self reference is an option but not a “must have” here. To me, it’s more idiomatic without it, but someone else might feel differently.
As for “an”… in context of movies and videos, the word of choice is “gucken”. “Angucken” might also work in certain phrasings but generally, it sounds a bit to “scrutinizing”, if that makes sense.
“Dvd angucken” sounds a tiny tiny little bit like you’re watching the pack and the cover.
So for movies and films, ansehen, but gucken. Why why german. Also, I have seen a sentence saying looking at Bilderbuch without the self reference. Is this relevant to your comment
Can you give me that Bilderbuch-sentence?
Die Mutter and ihr kind schauen zusammen ein Bildbuch an.
Das funktioniert. “sich” in Kombination mit “zusammen” klingt nicht so gut für mich.
Vielen Dank
Just to make sure
Film sich ansehen/sich anschauen/gucken
Ist das für dieses Verb? Oder alle Verben, die kann “Sich” benutzen,aber es ist nicht ein Regal
Nein, es ist nicht für alle.
– Wir waschen uns zusammen die Hände.
Hier gibt “zusammen” einen extra Fokus das wir es ZUSAMMEN machen, anstatt jeder für sich.
Wann funktioniert das Unterlassen von “Sich”.
Wir konzentrieren zusammen
Klappt das?
Nein, denn konzentrieren braucht ein Objekt. Normalerweise das Reflexivpronomen. “zusammen” ist ein Adverb.
Haben sie mehr Biespiel
Hallo Emanuel! Toller Beitrag, wie immer! Ich wollte mir diesen Unterschied seit lange klären, aber ich ging immer mit meiner Intuition und kümmerte mich darum nicht länger. Endlich habe ich heute eine Erklärung gesucht und dein Blog war da, um mich zu retten.
Ich habe jedoch einen Zweifel. Es stört mich mehr, als es sollte, dass du ‚ansehnlich‘ aus ‚ansehen‘ herkommen lässt. Kommt dieses wort nicht aus ‚sehnen/Sehne‘? Sonst sollt es, zumindest meiner Meinung nach, ansehlich‘ sein, oder?
Hi!
Love your blog, and greetings from NYC! I’m a grammar geek and I learn an immense amount from your posts and comments section that I wouldn’t anywhere else!
So, I’ve heard that you can say “ich sehe es mir sofort an”, meaning, “I’ll check it out right away”… Can you take the “mir” out and say instead “ich sehe es sofort an”?… My instinct is that you can’t, but perhaps it might mean something different?…
Danke!!!
Your instinct is right but there’s no deeper reason other than Sprachgefühl. It doesn’t mean anything different, it just sounds really odd/incomplete… at least to me.
– Ich sehe das Bild an.
This is proper, but I would never say it without “mir”.
It’s different with people by the way.
– Ich sehe Maria an.
Me personally, I would say “gucke” but “sehe” also works and here, having the “mir” in there would kind of sound like you walk around her and examine her. Or you look at her on a picture. So as soon as there’s eye contact, the egotistical “mir” has no place anymore :)
your postings always [sehr ] toll
Super danke für das Kompliment. Und super danke für die Spende :)
Hallo Emanuel. Kannst du bitte kurz erklären wie, gucken/schau/sehen zusammen in Verbindung mit der Präposition “auf” gebraucht wird ? Worin liegt der Unterschied zwischen, z. B Ich guck auf das Bild und Ich guck das bild an ?
Hmmm… “gucken auf” wird nicht so oft benutzt. Das erste, was mir eingefallen ist, ist
– “Guck auf die Strasse”
– Have your eyes on the street.
Das trifft die Bedeutung ganz gut. Bei “Gucken auf” geht es darum, wohin dein Blick gerichtet ist.
– Ich gucke auf den Boden.
– My eyes are on the floor.
– Ich gucke den Boden an.
– I look at the floor (to see how it is).
– Guck auf dein Blatt, nicht auf das von deinem Nachbarn.
– Eyes on your paper, not the one of your neighbor.
Hoffe, das hilft.
Ach so… “sehen auf” geht garnicht. “Schauen auf” ist für mich komisch, aber in Süddeutschland wohl normal.
Ops… “sehen auf” geht doch.
– Ich sehe auf die Uhr.
– I look at the watch (to see the time)
– Ich gucke die Uhr an.
– I look at the watch (to see how it is)
Ich persönlich benutze aber NIE “sehe auf”
Hallo Emanuel. Deinen Blog finde ich einfach toll! Ich habe nirgendwoanders eine so klare Erklärung über sehen/ansehen/sich ansehen gesehen. Ich bin schon ein paar Jahre lang in Deutschland und habe auch deutsche Freunde, die gut Englisch können, aber scheinbar haben sie das typische Muttersprachler-Symptom: sie können deutsche Grammatik nicht so sehr ausführlich erklären. Einfach weiter so!
Und auch, wenn in Zukunft eine Idee für ein geeignetes Wort fehlt, denk bitte mal dran, über die Vorsilbe “fest” zu schreiben. Die sieht man einfach überall und ist eigentlich nicht sehr einfach zu erfassen :)
Da hab’ ich noch nie dran gedacht, aber gute Idee… “Fest” wird tatsächlich oft benutzt. Danke :)
Thanks for all your help!
I have learned so much from you. This is one of the best German learning tools out there!
Danke für das schöne Feedback :)
Kick ass site, I used it a while ago…then forgot the name and didn’t bookmark -.- It deserves to be much higher up on the list when searching for German lessons. Please keep it rolling :)
Kind regards
Little Timmy
Na, willkommen zurück! And in case you forget again… just google “German is easy” and you’ll be right here.
Wow, this post really helped me.
I’m from Brazil and this whole ansehen thing was driving me crazy.
Thanks!
Super :)
Thanks for another nice piece. There’s also the famous German Mitbestimmung – worker’s participation in management, why German industry is so successful.
Wait, did you post that on WotD “die Stimme”? Ich bin verwirrt :)
Let me guess…
Lass mir raten oder lass mich raten?
Ich denke “lass mich raten” ist die richtige ausdrucke . Oder ?
Jap, ist es :)
how about sound and pronucation ? please advise thank you.
People have complained quite a lot about my “phonetic” description, which is why I stopped it… I would say it is
something between
“UNzaine” and UNzeen”… not as light as “ee” but not as “curved” as “aine” either.
Hope that helps
You can always use forvo.com:
http://www.forvo.com/word/ansehen/
Ich benutze ” Das Auusprache Wörterbuch” von Duden . Es ist in phonetische Lautschrift und über 130000 Wörtern mit Betonnung und Auusprache .
I use it from time to time .
Sehr interessanter Post
” wie dem auch sei “………………. konjunktif present
” wie dem auch sein mag” ………. Indikatif present
In beide ausdrüken ist ” wie” ist nicht ein Konjungtionswort aber ein adverb der Qualität .
– as big as = so gros wie…. oder ???
Gute Frage… ich bin mir auch nicht sicher, ob Konjunktion oder Adverb… für Konjunktion spricht, dass man es nicht verschieben kann und dass das Verb hinten steht. Für Adverb spricht
– So schnell er auch sein mag…
“So schnell” gehört ja hier auch irgendwie zusammen. Aber was es ist… keine Ahnung :)
Kleine Korrektur:
Im letzten Satz hättest du “sondern” gebraucht.
Danke schön Emmanuel für deine Korrekture .
Korrekturen.
Ich weiß, die deutsche Pluralbildung ist sogar schlimmer als die deutsche Adjektivdeklination und die deutsche Verbkonjugation! ;)
Zusammen…. und dann mal 10 :)
Vielen dank für deine Korreckturen!
Great as usual!
I wanted to ask a few things though. I was looking for a translation to “be that as it may” and found “wie dem auch sei” and “wie dem auch sein mag”. What’s the grammar behind that dative and the Konjunktiv. Also how do you say something like “as [adjective] as it may be…”
http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/3030/woher-kommt-der-dativ-in-wie-dem-auch-sei
Thank you for your information . It is very instructif .
“As [adj] as it may be” – “so [adj ] es(er/sie) auch sein mag”
That wouldn’t work just with “sei” for my ears. The reason might be that the “sei”-version is konjunctive-shit… uhm… I mean mood, an old use, an expression of a wish. Kings would say
– Er bringe mir mein Essenl.
– He may (in sense of MUST) bring me my food.
So… this wish in combination with “however good it is” (the sense of that) doesn’t work. Because it is “x” good. No wish needed. With the “sein mögen” you kind of acknowledge that it is possible and that does make sense.
I hope this comment did, too :D