Meanings
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The verb "absehen" is not very common. But the noun "die Absicht". Today, we'll find out what it means and how to say "on purpose" in German.
Vocab:
absehen, die Absicht, beabsichtigen, absichtlich

Word Family
The core idea of this root was:
observing, watching, perceiving
It’s the origin of hören and to hear (which is acoustically perceiving, observing) and also of German schauen, which is about looking at.
The English brother of schauen, to show, shifted from mere seeing toward showing – first, showing what you’re seeing and then showing in the more general sense.
It’s also the origin of German schön, which was originally “something you like to watch” and of the English caution which comes from Latin and was about watching in a sense of being on guard.
Some English relatives:
- to show (showing what you see)
- to hear (perceiving acoustically)
- caution (observing danger)
- sheen (similar to German schön)
Ich wieder…
Someone asked me what I have been doing in the living room. How do I respond in the most normal way “I watched the football game”?
Ich habe das Fußballspiel geschaut.
Ich habe das Fußballspiel gesehen
Ich habe mir das Fußballspiel angesehen
This is supposed to be a question about ‘Do I Schaue or Sehe when it comes to watching TV with no intent of learning something’
The last option is too long, so that’s out.
I would say:
And people in the South would say the same with “schauen”. The version with “sehen” sounds super stilted and “Fußballspiel” is a bit longer than it needs to be for daily conversation.
People either say “Fußball” or “das Spiel” and leave the rest to context.
Hey, Emanuel. I hope you’re doing well. There is a typo here. The spoken past should be “geschaut”.
Fixed! Danke :)!!