schauen

From Middle High German schouwen, from Old High German scouwōn, from Proto-Germanic *skawwōną (“to look, see, watch”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁- (“to heed, look, feel, take note of”). Cognate with Old English scēawian (“to look at, examine, show”). Compare English show.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃaʊ̯ən/

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

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schauen (weak, third-person singular present schaut, past tense schaute, past participle geschaut, auxiliary haben)

1. (intransitive) to watch, to view (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)

   Ich schaue gern Fußball. ― I like to watch football/soccer.

2. (intransitive, chiefly Austria, Bavaria, Southern Germany) to look (at something, at a certain location, in a certain direction, in a certain way)

   Schau, ich hab die Schlüssel gefunden. ― Look, I found the keys.

   Warum schaust du denn so böse? ― Why are you looking so angry?

3. (intransitive, chiefly Austria, Bavaria, Southern Germany, in the imperative) to look

   Schau, das funktioniert folgendermaßen: ... ― Look, this is how it works: ...

   Na schau, das war doch gar nicht so schwer. ― Well, look at that, it wasn't so difficult after all, was it?

4. (intransitive, Austria, Bavaria, Southern Germany) to watch out, to take care; to make sure, to see to it [with dass (+ clause) ‘that something happens’]

   Synonym: zusehen

   Schaut, dass ihr pünktlich seid. ― Make sure that you’ll be on time

   Keine Sorge, ich schau, dass du nicht ins Gefängnis kommst. ― Don't worry, I'll see to it that you don't go to jail.

5. (intransitive, Austria, Bavaria, Southern Germany) 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 schauen ― to look at something

6. (intransitive, Austria, Bavaria, Southern Germany) to look after, to watch, to take care, to keep an eye on [with auf (+ accusative) ‘someone/something’]

   Kannst du bitte auf das Kind schauen? ― Could you please keep an eye on the child?

7. (intransitive, informal) to decide spontaneously and/or by personal preference; to wait and see

   Ach, schauen wir einmal, wie sich die Sache entwickelt. ― Well, let's wait and see how things develop.

• In writing, schauen is normal throughout the language area.
• In colloquial speech, the word is commonly used in southern Germany and Austria. In northern and central Germany it is fairly rare and, to some, may sound affected, whereas the opposite is true in southern Germany and Austria.

• gucken, kucken, sehen

• Schauer, Schauung
• beschauen, erschauen, verschauen

• Schauen
• Schau
• schauend, geschaut

• “schauen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “schauen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “schauen” in Duden online
• “schauen” in OpenThesaurus.de