"Er sieht den Bau."

[liza.isakova]

Bau=building(?)

[yaliyev]

yes, it is accepted now

[rkaup]

How about "He sees the construction site?"

[Germandy]

I think "construction" is fine; construction site would be "Baustelle", don't you think?

[PatriciaJH]

Yes, it's one of the meanings given in Langenscheidt; Baustelle is given as an equivalent meaning.

[pctrollbreath]

Does this mean that the sees a construction/building, or something being constructed/built or is this interchangeable based on context?

[Germandy]

I believe it could be both, a building in progress or a building that has already been finished.

[PatriciaJH]

Yes, Langenscheidt agrees.

[amitdatta]

He is seeing the construction. Why is that wrong!?

[hutcho66]

To see is a non-progressive verb, meaning you can't switch 'see' with 'seeing' like you can with 'eat' for example

[sabanerox]

Bauen= To Build // Bau= Construction... it makes sense

[Geteilt]

So can anyone tell me how you would use Bauen as a command in Second Person informal?

I thought you just dropped the -en so it would become "Bau", the same as 'construction'
Seems confusing

[hutcho66]

Yep, 'Bau jetzt!' or 'Baue jetzt' would be 'Build now'. It's not necessarily confusing, many words in English and German are both nouns and verbs depending on usage...

[Geteilt]

True, very true. I suppose it all comes down to context

[r_10]

Can someone please explain why is becomes "den" Bau? I don't fully understand this! Thanks

[nadgerz]

Bau is in the accusative case here and for 'der' words, that changes to 'den'. And don't worry, all this will slowly come and become second nature. But it does mean you have to learn the der/die/das and plural with each noun. It sounds a pain, but in the long run it really helps.