Conjugating the German Verb Sehen, Meaning 'to See'

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

Examples Using Present Tense for Sehen

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

Read More

How to Conjugate the German Verb 'Sein'

By Hyde Flippo

Er sieht uns.
He sees us.

Sehen - Simple Past Tense -  Imperfekt

Sehen - Compound Past Tense (Present Perfect) - Perfekt

Sehen - Past Perfect Tense -  Plusquamperfekt

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?