Learn German: Möchtest du heute eine Sehenswürdigkeit besichtigen? - Would you like to visit a tourist attraction today?

You use besuchen when visiting people, attending an event, or going to a place for its function (like a restaurant or a school). You use besichtigen when you are visiting a place specifically to look around and view it, like a monument, a museum, or a tourist attraction.

Sehenswürdigkeit is a very long word! Is there a trick to remembering it?

Yes! German loves combining words. It is made of sehen (to see) and würdig (worthy). The ending -keit turns it into a noun, so it literally means a sight-worthy thing. Plus, any noun ending in -keit or -heit is always feminine, which is why we use eine here.

Why does besichtigen go at the very end of the question?

This sentence uses a modal verb (möchtest). In a yes/no question, the conjugated modal verb goes in the first position, and it pushes the main action verb (besichtigen) in its infinitive dictionary form to the very end of the sentence.

How would I change this sentence to ask if they would rather visit a tourist attraction?

You can use the irregular comparative form lieber that you are learning in this lesson! You just add it after the time word: Möchtest du heute lieber eine Sehenswürdigkeit besichtigen?