Breakdown of Wir sehen uns den Film an.
wir
we
der Film
the movie / the film
sich ansehen
to watch, to have a look at
Questions & Answers about Wir sehen uns den Film an.
Why is uns used here? We aren't watching ourselves!
You are right! In German, the verb sich etwas ansehen (to watch or look at something) is reflexive. The reflexive pronoun uns is in the dative case here because the sentence already has a direct object in the accusative case (den Film). You can think of it literally as 'We are watching the film for ourselves.'
How is sich ansehen different from just sehen?
The base verb sehen simply means 'to see' (a general sense of sight), while the separable verb sich ansehen implies active, intentional watching. You use sich ansehen for watching a movie, a TV show, or looking closely at a picture or document.
Why is the verb split into sehen and an at the end?
The infinitive form is ansehen. It is a separable verb, which means the prefix an detaches from the main verb and moves to the very end of the clause when it is conjugated in a simple tense like the present.
Doesn't the verb sehen usually take a bare infinitive without 'zu', as taught in this lesson?
Yes, the base verb sehen is a perception verb that often takes a bare infinitive (for example, Wir sehen ihn rennen - We see him run). However, the separable and reflexive version sich ansehen does not trigger that rule. It simply takes a standard noun object, like den Film, because you are watching a thing, not another action.
Why is the word for film den Film instead of der Film?
The word Film is a masculine noun. In this sentence, it is the direct object receiving the action of being watched, so it must be in the accusative case. That means the masculine article der changes to den.
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