Skip to main content
PlainSpell

sehen

German, verb

sehen is a German verb meaning “to see; to have sight” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Sehen is a different word: “gerund of sehen: "seeing"”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “aktiv und passiv wahrnehmen über das Sinnesorgan Auge”.

What does sehen mean in English?

verb

  1. 1

    to see; to have sight

    Er sieht nicht gut.

  2. 2

    to see (something); to perceive by vision

  3. 3

    to see

    Ich sah ihn arbeiten.

  4. 4

    to realize; to notice; to see; to find out

  5. 5

    to meet (someone); to meet up; to see; but not in the sense of “pay a visit to”, nor as a euphemism for having a romantic or sexual relation

    Siehst du den Markus noch?

  6. 6

    to look (at); to watch [with auf (+ accusative) or nach (+ dative) ‘someone/something’]; the construction with nach often implies a turning of the head; other prepositions can be used depending on the context

    auf/nach etwas sehen

  7. 7

    to check on; to look after; to see to

    Hast du in letzter Zeit nach dem Baby gesehen?

  8. 8

    informalto decide spontaneously and/or by personal preference; to wait and see

    Das werden wir dann sehen.

noun

as Sehen
  1. 1

    neutergerund of sehen: "seeing"

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

verb: 1. aktiv und passiv wahrnehmen über das Sinnesorgan Auge 2. erkennen

noun: 1. Fähigkeit, mit den Augen Lichtspektren zu empfangen, diese ans Gehirn weiterzusenden und dann zu verarbeiten

The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.

Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of sehen

  • sieht present singular third-person
  • sah past
  • gesehen participle past
  • sähe past subjunctive
  • haben auxiliary
  • 5 strong
  • sehend participle present
  • sehe first-person indicative present
  • siehst indicative present second-person
  • seht indicative plural present
  • sehest second-person singular subjunctive
  • sehet plural second-person subjunctive
  • sahen first-person indicative plural
  • sähen first-person plural subjunctive
  • sahst indicative preterite second-person
  • saht indicative plural preterite
  • sähest second-person singular subjunctive
  • sähst second-person singular subjunctive

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to sehen

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is sehen in German?

sehen appears 490 times per million words in written German.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).