Conjugating the German Verb Sehen, Meaning 'to See'

Sehen Conjugated in All Tenses

Close-up of woman's eye — Dan Kitwood/Getty Images News/Getty Images

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Updated on February 06, 2019

The German verb sehen means "to see." It is one of the most-common words you may see in German text, ranking around 270 in one automated study.

Sehen is an irregular or strong verb. This means it doesn't follow a strict rule for conjugation. In order to conjugate it correctly, you will need to study its different tenses and resort to memorizing them.

Stem-Changing Verbs

The verb sehen is both a stem-changing verb and an irregular (strong) verb. Notice the change from e to ie in the du and er/sie/es present tense forms. The past participle is gesehen. All of these irregularities can trip you up in reading and writing uses of sehen.

Sehen - Present Tense - Präsens

Deutsch	English
Singular	Present Tense
ich sehe	I see/am seeing
du siehst	you see/are seeing
er sieht sie sieht es sieht	he sees/is seeing she sees/is seeing it sees/is seeing

Plural Present Tense
wir sehen	we see/are seeing
ihr seht	you (guys) see/ are seeing
sie sehen	they see/are seeing
Sie sehen	you see/are seeing

Examples Using Present Tense for Sehen

Wann sehen wir euch?
When will we be seeing you (guys)?

Er sieht uns.
He sees us.

Sehen - Simple Past Tense - Imperfekt

Deutsch	English
Singular Simple Past Tense
ich sah	I saw
du sahst	you saw
er sah sie sah es sah	he saw she saw it saw

Plural Simple Past Tense
wir sahen	we saw
ihr saht	you (guys) saw
sie sahen	they saw
Sie sahen	you saw

Sehen - Compound Past Tense (Present Perfect) - Perfekt

Deutsch	English
Singular Compound Past Tense
ich habe gesehen	I saw/have seen
du hast gesehen	you saw/have seen
er hat gesehen sie hat gesehen es hat gesehen	he saw/has seen she saw/has seen it saw/has seen

Plural Compound Past Tense
wir haben gesehen	we saw/have seen
ihr habt gesehen	you (guys) saw have seen
sie haben gesehen	they saw/have seen
Sie haben gesehen	you saw/have seen

Sehen - Past Perfect Tense - Plusquamperfekt

Deutsch	English
Singular Past Perfect Tense
ich hatte gesehen	I had seen
du hattest gesehen	you had seen
er hatte gesehen sie hatte gesehen es hatte gesehen	he had seen she had seen it had seen

Plural Past Perfect Tense
wir hatten gesehen	we had seen
ihr hattet gesehen	you (guys) had seen
sie hatten gesehen	they had seen
Sie hatten gesehen	you had seen

Future Tenses for Sehen

German often substitutes the present tense for the future. The example with sehen is "Wir sehen uns morgen," translating as "We'll see you tomorrow."

The basic future tense would conjugate werden (will) and add sehen. Examples; ich werde sehen - I will see, du wirst sehen - you will see, wir werden spielen - we will play.

The future perfect tense is somewhat rare in German. It uses a conjugated form of werden and then places haben or sein at the end of the sentence. For example, ich werde gesehen haben - I will have seen.

Commands Using Sehen

sieh! see!
sehen Sie! see!

Other Uses of Sehen

Sie sieht nicht gut. She doesn't see well.
Wo hast du ihn gesehen? Where did you see him?

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Your Citation

Flippo, Hyde. "Conjugating the German Verb Sehen, Meaning 'to See'." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/german-verb-conjugations-sehen-to-see-4070796. Flippo, Hyde. (2023, April 5). Conjugating the German Verb Sehen, Meaning 'to See'. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/german-verb-conjugations-sehen-to-see-4070796 Flippo, Hyde. "Conjugating the German Verb Sehen, Meaning 'to See'." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/german-verb-conjugations-sehen-to-see-4070796 (accessed June 11, 2023).