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Ich sehe mir den Film an.

Can this sentence be,
»Ich sehe den Film an.« or
»Ich sehe den Film.«?

For one, I don't understand why there need a »mir«.
For two, I am not clear with »sehen« & »ansehen«.
Both of them have a meaning of »watch«. So, how should I choose them in different situation?

Em1
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Echo Yang
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1 Answers1

4

It does not need the pronoun (mandatory), it can have it (optional).

This is correct too:

Ich sehe den Film an.
I watch the movie.

But this is a little bit different (but also correct):

Ich sehe den Film.
I see the movie.

  • sehen = to see
  • ansehen = to watch

German has »echte reflexive Verben« (real reflexive verbs) which only can be used with a reflexive pronoun:

irren: Ich irre mich.
bücken: Ich bücke mich.
weigern: Ich weigere mich.
umsehen: Ich sehe mich um.

(there are more verbs in this category)

Another category is »unechte reflexive Verben« (unreal reflexive verbs). They can be used reflexive as well as non-reflexive:

waschen: Ich wasche mich. Ich wasche das Haar. Ich wasche mir das Haar. Ich wasche dich.
treffen: Ich treffe mich mit dir. Ich treffe dich.
fragen: Ich frage mich, ob das stimmt. Ich frage meinen Lehrer, ob das stimmt.

The verbs »ansehen« and »anschauen« are »unechte reflexive Verben« like »waschen« (and they are also separable verbs).

schauen: Ich schaue mich an. Ich schaue den Film an. Ich schaue mir den Film an. Ich schaue dich an.

Hubert Schölnast
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    To emphasize what's IMHO the main difference, "sehen" and "ansehen" are two different verbs. "sehen" is generally "to see", while "ansehen" means more "to watch". "ansehen" is reflexive, so it needs a "sich", "mir" etc. You might say, "Ich sehe den Film" means "I see the movie" (as in "I see the DVD lying over there"), "Ich sehe den Film an" means "I watch the movie". – Henning Kockerbeck Nov 07 '16 at 10:54
  • By the way, I have another question, @Hubert. Why you use this symbol "»" & "«" ? , if I may ask? – Echo Yang Nov 07 '16 at 15:22
  • @EchoYang: Because I like them better. And there's another reason: If you use the normal quotation sign (") in the heading of a question, it will automatically be converted into English typographic quotation signs. But this is wrong if you have a German heading. For quotation marks in different languages see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Summary_table – Hubert Schölnast Nov 07 '16 at 15:32
  • @HenningKockerbeck I don't Believe "ansehen" necessarily is a reflexive verb. You might confuse this with a transitive verb, which has to have an object. – Beta Nov 08 '16 at 09:51
  • @Beta So "reflexive" isn't a subcategory of "transitive"? My understanding was that a transitive verb requires an object, with a reflexive verb that object has to "refer back" to the subject. – Henning Kockerbeck Nov 08 '16 at 14:15
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    @HenningKockerbeck: It is true, that in most languages only transitiv verbs can be used reflexiv, and German and English are such languages, but reflexivity is not a subcategory of transitivity. As far as I know you can build reflexive sentences with intransitive verbs in ergative languages like Kurdish, Tibetan and most Australian Aboriginal languages. – Hubert Schölnast Nov 08 '16 at 14:48