Hello everyone,
another day in quarantene. Hooray!
Well, actually, we don’t really have quarantene in Germany. Thank God. What we have is a “Kontaktverbot”. That means we have to keep 6 feet apart, and are not allowed to form groups larger than two people. Not so bad, actually. Much better than a curfew, for sure.
Anyway guys, welcome to our German Word of the Day and this time we will look at the meaning of:
aussehen
And to start this of, let’s do a little guessing game.
How many different concepts or meaning does aussehen have? 1, 3 or 6? What would you say?
Keep in mind… it’s a German prefix verb.
The correct answer is…
One.
Yes, one.
Most German prefix verbs have two or more meanings, but this only has one.
Still, it’s a really really useful verb, because it means to look. But actually just one aspect of to look.
- Maria looks right.
This can actually mean two things. It can mean that Maria directs her gaze to the right. And it can mean that Maria’s apperance seems right.
Aussehen is ONLY to look in sense of apperance, while the idea of directing your gaze is usually expressed by gucken or (in the South) schauen
- Maria guckt nach rechts. (direction of gaze)
- Maria sieht richtig aus. (apperance)
So, aussehen is to look in sense of looks.
Not too difficult in theory, but in practice, the verb actually makes more problems than you’d think. The prefix aus is separable, so we have to move it to the end of the phrase. And many learners, even more advanced ones, just simply forget to add it. But that’s actually quite confusing to a German native speaker.
- Maria sieht sehr gut.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This actually means that Maria has a very good eyesight.
- Maria sieht sehr gut aus.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
THIS means that Maria is very good looking. And even if the sentence is really long and the context makes it clear like in this example…
- Maria sieht nach der langen Autofahrt von München, wo sie beruflich zu tun hatte, nach Berlin zu ihrem Freund Markus, mit dem sie, sobald sie einen Job in Berlin bekommt, zusammenziehen will, sehr müde und erschöpft aus
- After her long drive from Munich, where she had job related stuff to do, to Berlin to her boyfriend Marcus, with whom she wants to move together as soon as she gets a job in Berlin, Maria looks very tired and exhausted.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
… without the aus it sounds really incomplete to a German native speaker.
I know you’re now like “This sentence is not really anything Germans would say, right?”
Well… yes, it was a bit over the top maybe, but it’s not too far fetched. And before you complain… 200 years ago it was WAY WORSE… try to read Kleist. He just does not know how to finish a sentence. Anyway… back to aussehen.
So aussehen means to look in sense of to (physical) appearance.
But how to use it in a sentence?
One way is of course to just add the look to it directly.
- Thomas looks bored.
- Thomas sieht gelangweilt aus.
But you can’t only look [adjective]. In English, you can look like something or as if you do something.
And in German, there are three possibilities for that: wie , als ob and and nach.
If you look like something or someone the German word to use for that comparison is wie.
- Du siehst aus wie ein Engel.
Du siehst wie ein Engel aus - You look like an angel.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Die Küche sieht aus wie ein Schlachtfeld aus dem zweiten Weltkrieg.
Die Küche sieht wie ein Schlachtfeld aus dem zweiten Weltkrieg aus. - The kitchen looks like a battle field from world war 2.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And here, we can see something particular with regards to sentence structure. As beginners, we learn that the prefix has to go to the end of the sentence. And in the very long sentence we had earlier, it also had to be at the end. For sentences with wie, however, it’s a bit different.
The wie-part, especially if it is longer, “feels” like a phrase of its own… like a weil-phrase or dass-phrase. That’s why you can put the aus before it. I have talked more about this in the article on comparisons, so I’ll add a link to that below.
Anyway, so you… the wie-part can come after the prefix. In the first example above, both version are equally fine. In the second example, I would prefer the first versions – the one where the aus comes before the rest. But grammatically, both are correct.
Cool.
Now, in English, like is also used if you want to say, that someone looks like they’re DOING something. So if the comparison involves a verb.
- You look like you could use a glass of soy milk.
This was a premiere, by the way. I don’t think anyway has ever said this sentence before. Like… I know how someone looks who needs a beer. I see that every morning in the mirror. But soy milk.
Anyway, unlike in English, where you can use like, in German wie alone does NOT work for these phrasings. People might understand, but it sound really bad.
Instead, what you use is als ob (as if) or another variation with als.
- Du siehst aus, als ob du ein Glas Sojamilch gebrauchen kannst
- Du siehst aus, als wenn du ein Glas Sojamilch gebrauchen könntest/kannst.
- Du siehst aus, als könntest/kannst du ein Glas Sojamilch gebrauchen.
(note that the verb DOESN’T go to the end here even though it’s an als-sentence #exceptionsareawesome)
There are no real big differences between all these versions so you can just pick one and go with it.
And oh… those of you who are a little more advanced might be wondering about the difference between using the present (here: kannst) and the conditional (here:könntest). And this is not very strict in German… at least not in spoken German. If you just use als or als wenn then conditional is the better pick but don’t worry too much there.
All right.
Last but not least, we have the phrasing aussehen nach.
Just like wie, this is used with nouns and it translates to like, but it has a bit of a special vibe. I think “clue” or “hinting at” is the best way to say it.
Yeah… that wasn’t clear at all, but maybe the examples help.
The one that comes to my mind is connected to weather.
- Es sieht nach Regen aus.
- It looks like it’s going to rain.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The translation is still “look like”, but the sense is a bit difference than before. This does not mean that “it” literally looks LIKE rain in the sense that it has the same appearance as rain. Instead, the sentence means that “its” looks suggest there will be rain.
Here’s another example
- Das sieht nach einer schweren Aufgabe aus.
- That looks like it is going to be a difficult task.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
We could also use wie here, but the nach makes it sound less like a comparison and more like a prediction.
Here’s one last example.
- Das sieht nach einer sehr guten Party aus.
- That looks like it was a very good party.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Cool.
Now, we are almost done for today, but there’s a couple more things I want to address before we wrap up.
First of, there’s the past tense.
If you’ve read my series on past tense in German, you’ll know that most verbs use what we call the spoken past in daily life. Aussehen however is one of the verbs for which the real past (preterit) is the idiomatic choice even in spoken German.
- The food looked weird but it was very tasty.
- Das Essen hat komisch ausgesehen, aber es war sehr lecker….. meehhhhhhhh
- Das Essen sah komisch aus, aber es war sehr lecker.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The second translation is definitely the better choice here. I mean… the spoken past is not really wrong, but it sounds odd.
As you can see the real past stem is sah aus so the conjugation would be:
- Ich sah müde aus.
- Du sahst müde aus.
- Er sah müde aus.
And then, last but not least, a quick look at the related words. The noun das Aussehen is the direct counterpart to the verb and means the appearance or the looks. And the d-form aussehend is the word for looking.
- Maria cares a lot about her looks.
- Maria ist ihr Aussehen sehr wichtig.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Who is that good looking guy there?
- Wer ist dieser gut aussehende Typ dort?
But then, there’s also the noun die Aussicht. And that is kind a bit further from the verb, because it means view or perspective or outlook.
- Die Aussicht vom Balkon war großartig.
- The view from the balcony was terrific.
- Die Aussichten für die Wirtschaft sind wegen Corona nicht so gut.
- The outlook for the economy is not that great because of corona.
And that’s it :). This was our look at the meaning and use of aussehen. Which means to look in the sense of … well… looks.
If you want to check how much you remember, and if you know how to use it, you can take the little quiz I have prepared for you.
And of course if you have any questions or suggestions, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
further reading:
Comparisons in German
The meaning and use of “als”
German Past Tense 1 – An Overview
Was ist der Unterschied denn zwischen Ansicht und Aussicht, und sind sie ersetzbar?
No, they’re different.
– Aussicht is perspective (what you see in the future) and view (what you see from a hotel window)
– Ansicht is the view (my way of looking at things, my opinion) and the viewing (for viewing a document)
Maybe i’m getting my grammar muddled but shouldn’t it be “Wer ist dieser gute aussehende Typ dort ” and if not why not please?
Actually, it needs to be:
“gut” is an adverb here and modifies “looking”. English is just being English about it, so instead of “well”, it uses “good”. But yeah… the “good” modifies/qualifies the verb, so that’s why it doesn’t get an ending.
“aussehende” on the other hand does get one because it is an adjective.
ah yes, im often getting confused by adverbs! thanks for clarifying
Hi Emanuel – I know you touched on this when discussing the placement of aus when using the wie construction- but what about the placement of aus in this example:
Er sieht ein bisschen unheimlich aus mit einem Spitzbart- can aus go to the end?
Thx
Yes, but the part about the beard has to come before “ein bisschen unheimlich” then.
Der Test sieht sehr komisch aus, als ob es kapput ist.
In “Das sieht nach einer sehr guten Party aus.”, how exactly do we know that it is in the past tense? Why can;t the translation be “That looks like it is going to be a good party”.
Great question!!
I didn’t realize because in my head I imagined a scenario of someone entering an apartment the day after. But the sentence itself would also work for present tense.
Even for the future, if someone is looking at the heap of party supplies. Though, for the future, actually using proper future in that very context is more idiomatic.
But yeah, the sentence itself does as you pointed out NOT indicate when the party takes or took place.
Was bedeutet dir wenn du “real past” gesagt?
Ups, ich meinte die “written past”, das Präteritum. Ich komme manchmal mit meinen ganzen Namen durcheinander.
Thanks, that’s good.
Hi, I feel the need to ask how the German Language Brain gets the understanding when separable verbs are used in a sentence. Does the understanding grow as the words proceed to be spoken/read and therefore there is a growing sense of anticipation that there will be the separated bit to come that will make sense. Or, is it the the bit at the end takes a different meaning that causes an instant switch in understanding? So, for the example sentence above using sehen [see/look], when aus arrives the sense of its meaning is perhaps [because of where it is in the sentence] that all previous meaning accumulated so far is viewed/seen from outside?
Thanks.
Great question and yes, the native speaker brain usually knows what prefix is coming before it comes simply by context and how the sentence is structured.
– Deine Haare sehen….
Here the context makes it clear that it’s not about actual seeing and that we’re most likely talking about looks. The “aus” is expected.
In other instances, it’s the grammar that narrows it down (like… does it have a direct object, or what preposition does it use). I just can’t think of an example right now.
But yeah… most of the time, the listener knows the full verb before the prefix is said. I don’t think the listener is ever without an assumption of what’s to come. There are instances where the prefix ends up not being what was expected and then the listener indeed has to re-arrange everything, but those instances are quite rare, I’d say.
Hope that helps :)
Awesome thanks!
Dafuck is this place?! Everything is nicely explained. Actually, for the trashy American English reflexive, I’d say it’s not a remnant of old speak if you find it in neighbourhoods in the city. Maybe in the countryside it is, but in the city most probably it’s just a re-invention of this phenomenon. Keep up the good work.
Will do. Thanks!
Ok I know this isn’t exactly the right place to post this but it is driving me crazy and I need your professional help: what is the difference between ansehen and sich ansehen? (they have the same root as aussehen which is why I posted the question here ha) I’ve seen both used and can’t see a difference. Here are two sentences I’ve seen in my lessons:
Wir sehen die Nachrichten im Fernsehen an.
Wir sehen sich seit fünfzehn Uhr die Nachrichten an.
Why does ansehen become a reflexive verb and how does it affect the meaning? I really appreciate your help in advance!
Man, you have asked SOMETHING here….
We have to divide ansehen into 2 parts… the first one is ansehen ins sense of to watch or to see.
Wir sehen einen Film an.
Wir sehen uns einen Film an.
Note that it is not “Wir sehen sich einen Film an.” because the reflexive pronoun for we is “uns”
Both these formulations mean the same… we are watching a movie. Especially the first one sounds odd to me but I think there are regions in German where that phrasing is the default. Now what is the difference? There is none. Germans have a tendancy to use a reflexive form if someone is doing something for himself such as buy or watch.
Ich kaufe eine Hose.
Ich kaufe mir eine Hose.
Both mean about the same. Ok .. the first one doesn’t explicitly clarify for whom i buy a pair of pants but it will be inferred by context or the person who the pants are for would be stated respectively. However, the second just feels and sounds MUCH better to me. The grammar ma not demand the reflexive, but feeling does. There are numerous examples for this redundant reflexive.
Ich hole (mir) ein Bier.
Ich borge (mir ) ein Buch.
Ich
For most verbs that CAN take a dative object Germans might say the reflexive if they do it to themselves. This also means that you CANNOT say
Ich esse mir eine Pizza.
Why not? Because I cannot eat a pizza to someone else, so I can’t do it to myself either.
For some verbs the redundant reflexive has become so strong that it has evolved into an own meaning. Prime example is vorstellen.
Ich stelle ein Buch vor – I present a book.
Ich stelle mir ein Buch vor – I present a book to myself (lit.) – I imagine / visualize a book.
So bottom line… “Wir sehen uns einen Film an” just sounds better.
And now to the other ansehen… the one in sense of to see.
Ich sehe dir an, dass du müde bist.
I can see that you are tired. / I can see in you that you are tired.
There you have a dative object (dir). Can it take an accusative as well. Yes so.
Ich sehe dir deinen Ärger an.
I can see your anger (in you).
Dir is dat. deinen Ärger is acc.
What makes this interesting, is if you want to use this ansehen in the reflexive way… for instance you look into the mirror to check whether your work out is starting to show.
Ich sehe mir mein Training an.
If I said:
Man sieht mir mein Training an.
that would be perfectly fine and clear… everyone can see, that I have been working out.
Ich sehe mir mein Training an.
however is ambiguous. Which ansehen do you mean… the watch one or the see one.
Technically it could mean either of the following 2.
I can see that I have been working out.
I watch my work out (because maybe I taped).
In this case this watch one dominates. Always. No exception. People will ALWAYS understand it as the second version and not even get the idea that you meant the first.
The bottom line of all this:
If you see ansehen having a dative object which is NOT the subject itself … it means to see.
If you see ansehen having a reflexive dative object it means to watch and the object is just there because it sounds nicer.
I hope that answered you question :)
Interesting… In American English we have something similar to this redundant reflexive, but it’s not technically grammatically correct. It’s mainly used if you want to sound ironic-trashy, like “I’m gonna eat me some pizza!”, or “We’re gonna watch us some porn!”, or “Our addict neighbors smoked them some crack last night.” I think people from the South use this construction more often, and without irony. Love your blog!
Oh wow that is a cool observation. Although in German the pizza and the crack example wouldn’t work with a redundant reflexive, I think the idea is totally the same. And the porn-version does work perfectly “Wir gucken uns einen Porno an.”… grammatically spoken of course :).
Would be interesting to know whether this structure is a remnant of an older version of English. I have recently learned that US English is actually the older one in quite some respects as it simply didn’t make the changes British English has made since.
Either way, thanks for the nice insight… and by the way… haven’t we met for one or 2 classes this summer? I am not 100% sure but if you are… glad you’re still on it. Ich hoffe, du hast noch Spaß daran :)! Gruss aus dem verregneten Berlin
Definitely possible.. I was thinking about it, and I would expect that kind of speech maybe from the South and Northeast in the US, but never from a proper Englishman. I’m no expert but what I’ve read of American etymologies is super interesting to me, because there’s so much going on with all the various immigrant groups and social strata…
Ja, das war ich, und ich habe viel Spaß beim Deutsch lernen! Unsere Lektionen haben mir sehr gefallen, obwohl mein Deutsch so scheiße war. Seitdem habe ich den ein bisschen verbessern (aber nur lesen und hören, leide nicht soviel schreiben und sprechen, also ich bin sicher, dass ich jetzt viele Fehler mache…). Jedentag lese ich Zeit Online mit der Google Chrome plug-in Lingua.ly, der mir eine Übersetzung zeigt, als ich eine neue Wort doubleclicke.
Nächstes Jahr habe ich vor, nach Berlin zu ziehen, ob ich ein Freiberuflich Visa bekommen kann. Ideal, irgendwo “cool” wie Friedrichshain oder Mitte. Although I hope I wouldn’t be contributing to Touristenhass (http://www.zeit.de/kultur/2012-08/touristenhass-kommentar). I myself am being gentrified out of San Francisco, so I know how annoying it can be. :)
Hahaha…. just don’t buy real estate here. Then I would frown at you too :). Also, dass was du geschrieben hast ist schon ziemlich gut. Und wenn du sogar “Zeit” lesen kannst, dann bist du schon echt gut. Zeitung lesen ist die Königsdisziplin… Kant, Hegel und Kleist lesen ist die Kaiserdisziplin… aber die kann ich auch nicht :D. Schön, dass du die Geduld hattest. Die braucht man für Deutsch. Von wegen Touristenhass… da geht es glaub’ ich mehr um Leute die 2 Wochen oder so hier bleiben und in einer illegalen Ferienwohung wohnen. Irgendwelche Privatleute mieten eine Wohnung, wohnen selbst gar nicht da und vermieten die Wohnung unter für mehr Geld. Natürlich schwarz, also ohne Steuern zu zahlen. In manchen Bezirken (Kreuzberg) gibt es so viele Ferienwohnungen, dass es ein Problem ist, da normale Mieter nix finden. Und so Webseiten wie Airbnb tragen schön dazu bei und machen Profit. I do hate Airbnb. Aber die Leute, die hier ganz normal wohnen und arbeiten oder studieren sind super wichtig für die Stadt. Was wäre Berlin denn ohne die vielen Expats und “1 Jahr Berlin” Leute… nur voll von schlecht gelaunten Deutschen … ne… das wäre garnicht gut :D. Also komm!! Ich glaube du/ihr (falls dein Mann mitkommt) werdet euch hier wohlfühlen.
:)… good old Kleist. I find it really difficult to read him, because I always lose concentration… he just puts soooo many commas in his phrases, sometimes it is as if he is making a parody… and in your example… “in deren einem”… that is nice. Say that in a conversation and they will consider you enlightened for the next 2 weeks
“Kleist. He just does not know how to finish a sentence.”… :-) http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6645/pg6645.html
So is this one of his shortest sentences…evena newbie like me could dare to unravel it …so must be one of the shortest sentences :-)
“Am Fuße der Alpen bei Locarno im oberen Italien befand sich ein altes, einem Marchese gehöriges Schloß, das man jetzt, wenn man vom St. Gotthard kommt, in Schutt und Trümmern liegen sieht: ein Schloß mit hohen und weitläufigen Zimmern, in deren einem einst auf Stroh, das man ihr unterschüttete, eine alte kranke Frau, die sich bettelnd vor der Tür eingefunden hatte, von der Hausfrau aus Mitleiden gebettet worden war.”
“At the foothills of the Alpes near Locarno in the Italian uplands is an old castle belonging to a Marchese which one can see lying in rubbles and ruins when coming from St.Gotthard. A castle with high and sprawling ruins amidst which once on the straw, ….????, which one had an old sick lady who was found begging in front of the door
See one person in despair with that para “Fragen über Fragen”…:-)
http://de.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090531034939AAITEdJ