The German word for “to show” is not schauen (“to look”), although they sound similar and are, in fact, related. The actual term for “to show” is zeigen.

The index finger is called Zeigefinger (lit. “showing finger”) in German, and the hands on a clock are called Uhrzeiger, from which we also get im Uhrzeigersinn (“clockwise”) and gegen den Uhrzeigersinn (“counterclockwise”).

The actual noun for “show” (as in, a radio or television program) is also Show in German, but more classically Vorführung or Vorstellung (“performance” or “presentation”) and very rarely Schau.

Hey. My name's Stephan. I wrote this blog post. What I also did: I filmed myself teaching German to some absolute beginners! See how that went...

Examples

Zeig mir was du kannst. Show me what you can do.

Können Sie es mir zeigen? Can you show it to me? or also Can you show me how to do it?

Ich muss dir unbedingt diese Vorführung zeigen. I absolutely have to show you this show.

About the Author Stephan

Stephan has been a professional language teacher since the early 2000s. He's been calling Berlin his home since 2006, when he started managing (and founding his own) language schools in addition to teaching German and English. He's the owner of Deutschable and loves writing about language, history, and game changers.

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Get our Free E-Book

Do you know the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German? Join our mailing list for German learners and check out our exclusive, illustrated ebook and supercharge your German vocab today!

>