verstehen

== English == === Etymology === Unadapted borrowing from German Verstehen or German verstehen (“to understand, comprehend”). === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /və(ɹ)ˈʃteɪ.ən/ === Noun === verstehen (uncountable) (sociology) A stance that attempts to understand the meaning of action from the actor’s point of view, so that the actor is seen as a subject rather than an object of observation. == German == === Etymology === From Middle High German verstān, virstēn, vorstēn, ferstān, from Old High German firstān, firstēn, from Proto-Germanic *frastāną, equivalent to ver- +‎ stehen. Cognate with Bavarian versteh, Dutch verstaan, Middle Low German vorstān. Compare also English forstand. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /fərˈʃteːən/, /fɛr-/, [fɐˈʃteː.ən], [fɛɐ̯-], [-ˈʃteː.n̩], [-ˈʃteːn] === Verb === verstehen (irregular strong, third-person singular present versteht, past tense verstand, past participle verstanden, past subjunctive verstände or verstünde, auxiliary haben) (transitive or intransitive) to understand to hear and interpret (speech) to comprehend, to make sense of Synonyms: see Thesaurus:begreifen to take, to interpret, to gather (to impute what is not explicitly stated) to understand, to consider, to take [with als ‘as being something’] etwas als Beleidigung verstehen ― to consider something an insult etwas als seine Aufgabe verstehen ― to consider something as being one's job to know, to have knowledge or understanding of (through experience or study) [with accusative ‘much, little, nothing’ and von ‘about something’] Er versteht viel von Autos. ― He knows a lot about cars. Davon verstehe ich nichts. ― That's beyond me. / I don't know anything about that topic. (reflexive) to understand oneself, to understand each other, to be understood to see oneself, to think of oneself [with als ‘as someone/something’] to understand one another, be able to communicate to get along [with mit (+ dative) ‘with someone’] Die beiden verstehen sich gut. ― The two get along well. Wie verstehst du dich mit deinem Chef? ― How do you get along with your boss? to be an expert [with auf (+ accusative) ‘at something’] to be meant, to have to be interpreted (in some way) (impersonal, often further emphasized with "von selbst") to go without saying, to be obvious Es versteht sich, dass ... ― It goes without saying that ... Das versteht sich von selbst. ― That goes without saying. ==== Conjugation ==== ==== Derived terms ==== === Further reading === “verstehen”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎[1] (in German) “verstehen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon “verstehen” in Duden online “verstehen” in OpenThesaurus.de