besuchen
to visit
Besuchen (to visit) is the standard German verb for visiting people, places, and events. You'll use it for meine Eltern besuchen (visit my parents), Berlin besuchen (visit Berlin), and ein Konzert besuchen (attend a concert). It's a regular verb that follows the predictable -en conjugation pattern.
The present tense is ich besuche, du besuchst, er/sie/es besucht, wir besuchen, ihr besucht, sie besuchen. The perfect tense uses haben as the auxiliary: ich habe meine Oma besucht (I visited my grandma). Because besuchen starts with the inseparable prefix be-, the past participle stays as besucht rather than adding ge-, so you don't get gebesucht.
Besuchen is built from the prefix be- plus the verb suchen (to search, to look for). The be- turns searching into a goal-directed visit. This prefix can't be split off the verb, so unlike separable verbs, besuchen always stays together in a sentence: ich besuche meinen Freund (I am visiting my friend).
One useful collocation to learn is die Schule besuchen (to attend school). In German, students besuchen a school the same way you would visit a museum: the verb covers both ordinary visits and regular attendance.
Pronunciation: stress falls on the middle syllable, "be-SU-chen". The "ch" after the "u" is the throaty back sound also heard in Buch or suchen. The final "e" is short, almost a schwa.
English
to visit
Perfekt
ich habe besucht
Partizip II
besucht
Auxiliary
besuchen appears in the following vocabulary collections:
Ich besuche meine Oma.
I visit my grandma.
Verb in position 2 after the subject.
Wir besuchen die Schule heute.
We visit the school today.
Time adverb goes after the object.
Besuchst du den Park?
Are you visiting the park?
In yes/no questions, the verb comes first.
- What does besuchen mean in German?
- Besuchen means "to visit" in German. It works for visiting people (meine Tante besuchen, to visit my aunt), places (Berlin besuchen, to visit Berlin), and events (ein Konzert besuchen, to attend a concert).
- How do you conjugate besuchen in the present tense?
- Besuchen follows the regular -en pattern: ich besuche, du besuchst, er/sie/es besucht, wir besuchen, ihr besucht, sie/Sie besuchen. The endings are the same as for any regular German verb in this group.
- Is besuchen a regular or irregular verb?
- Besuchen is a regular (weak) verb. It doesn't change its stem vowel in any tense, and the past participle is the predictable besucht. The only point to remember is that the be- prefix blocks the usual ge- on the participle.
- What is the past participle of besuchen?
- The past participle is besucht (visited). You use it with haben in the perfect tense: ich habe meinen Vater besucht (I have visited my father). It does not add ge- at the start because of the inseparable be- prefix.
- What is the difference between besuchen and gehen zu?
- Besuchen takes the visited person or place as a direct object (ich besuche meinen Freund, I am visiting my friend). Gehen zu literally means "to go to" and uses the dative (ich gehe zu meinem Freund, I am going to my friend's). The two often overlap in meaning, but besuchen puts more emphasis on the act of visiting itself.