ansehen — German conjugation

to look at

Frequency#270Irregular

Indicative

Present (Präsens) Irregular

Präsens is the default present for facts, habits, and near-future plans. German has no continuous aspect in the same way as English, so a single form often covers both “I work” and “I am working” when you add a time adverb or context.

Ich arbeite heute im Homeoffice.

Pronoun	German	English
ich	sehe an	I look at
du	siehst an	you look at
er/sie/es	sieht an	he/she/it looks at
wir	sehen an	we look at
ihr	seht an	you (pl.) look at
sie/Sie	sehen an	they look at

Simple past (Präteritum) Irregular

Präteritum is a narrative past, common in print and in northern speech, while southern speakers lean on the perfect in conversation. sein and haben keep their Präteritum even when you otherwise avoid the preterite.

Er war müde, aber er hatte keinen Kaffee mehr.

Pronoun	German	English
ich	sah an	I looked at
du	sahst an	you looked at
er/sie/es	sah an	he/she/it looked at
wir	sahen an	we looked at
ihr	saht an	you (pl.) looked at
sie/Sie	sahen an	they looked at

Present perfect (Perfekt) Irregular

The Perfekt is the everyday past for finished events: auxiliary haben or sein plus participle, with sein for most motion, coming/going, and some change-of-state verbs.

Wir sind rechtzeitig angekommen und haben gefeiert.

Pronoun	German	English
ich	habe angesehen	I have looked at
du	hast angesehen	you have looked at
er/sie/es	hat angesehen	he/she/it has looked at
wir	haben angesehen	we have looked at
ihr	habt angesehen	you (pl.) have looked at
sie/Sie	haben angesehen	they have looked at

Pluperfect (Plusquamperfekt) Irregular

The Plusquamperfekt is the pluperfect: it marks what had already completed before a later past episode in the same narrative.

Sie war schon gegangen, bevor er ankam.

Pronoun	German	English
ich	hatte angesehen	I had looked at
du	hattest angesehen	you had looked at
er/sie/es	hatte angesehen	he/she/it had looked at
wir	hatten angesehen	we had looked at
ihr	hattet angesehen	you (pl.) had looked at
sie/Sie	hatten angesehen	they had looked at

Future I (Futur I) Irregular

Futur I is for predictions, firm promises, and also probability about the present in colloquial German. Everyday speech very often uses Präsens plus a time expression instead.

Morgen schneit es, sagt der Wetterbericht.

Pronoun	German	English
ich	werde ansehen	I will look at
du	wirst ansehen	you will look at
er/sie/es	wird ansehen	he/she/it will look at
wir	werden ansehen	we will look at
ihr	werdet ansehen	you (pl.) will look at
sie/Sie	werden ansehen	they will look at

Future II (Futur II) Irregular

Futur II (werden + participle + haben/sein) names an action that will be completed before a later time, and can also express a guess that something must already have happened.

Bis Freitag werde ich alles gepackt haben.

Pronoun	German	English
ich	werde angesehen haben	I will have looked at
du	wirst angesehen haben	you will have looked at
er/sie/es	wird angesehen haben	he/she/it will have looked at
wir	werden angesehen haben	we will have looked at
ihr	werdet angesehen haben	you (pl.) will have looked at
sie/Sie	werden angesehen haben	they will have looked at

Subjunctive

Subjunctive II (Konjunktiv II) Irregular

Konjunktiv II is the mood for politeness, contrary-to-fact if-clauses, and reported views. In speech, würde + infinitive often stands in for rarer preterit-based forms.

Könnten Sie mir bitte helfen?

Pronoun	German
ich	sähe an
du	sähest an
er/sie/es	sähe an
wir	sähen an
ihr	sähet an
sie/Sie	sähen an

Other forms

Imperative (Imperativ) Irregular

The imperative uses the du, ihr, and Sie forms of command; the informal du form drops the -st of the present for many strong verbs, and separable-prefix verbs place the prefix at the end.

Mach bitte schnell, der Zug fährt gleich ab.

Pronoun	German
du	sieh an
ihr	seht an