zeigen

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German

Etymology

From Middle High German zeigen, from Old High German zeigōn, intensive of zīhan, whence modern zeihen (to blame). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ-, whence also Zeichen, English teach. In Modern German, zeigen absorbed the synonymous but entirely unrelated Middle High German zöugen (cognate with Gothic ataugjan); therefore the spellings zäugen, zeugen also occurred.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈt͡saɪ̯ɡən/,
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Verb

zeigen (weak, third-person singular present zeigt, past tense zeigte, past participle gezeigt, auxiliary haben)

  1. to show, make see
    Synonym: weisen (now restricted in use, in many contexts archaic)
    1. (with auf) to point at
      Man zeigt nicht mit dem Finger auf die Leute!
      You don’t point your finger at people!
    2. (transitive) to exhibit, allow to see
      Zeig mir mal deine Briefmarkensammlung!
      Please show me your stamp collection!
    3. (transitive) to display, manifest
      Die Bäume zeigen schon die ersten grünen Blätter.
      The trees are already displaying the first green leaves.
    4. to demonstrate, explain by doing
      Synonyms: vormachen, vorführen, demonstrieren
      Kannst du mir mal zeigen, wie das geht?
      Could you show me how this is done?
    5. to go to show, demonstrate, prove
      Synonyms: belegen, beweisen, demonstrieren
      Das zeigt wieder mal, dass du keine Ahnung hast.
      This only shows again that you don't have a clue.
  2. (reflexive) to appear, become apparent, come out, turn out, show up, to be manifested

Conjugation

Derived terms

Further reading

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