anfühlt

Anfühlt is a form of the German verb anfühlen, which means to feel by touch or to convey a certain sensation. The verb can be used in a physical sense—to assess how something feels to the touch—or in a figurative sense—to express how a situation or impression seems. A common construction is sich anfühlen, a pronominal verb meaning “to feel (like)” or “to feel in a certain way.”

In practice, the idiomatic use is illustrated by sentences such as: Es fühlt sich kalt an. (It feels cold.) Der Stoff fühlt sich weich an. (The fabric feels soft.) Figurative examples include Die Situation fühlt sich riskant an. (The situation feels dangerous.) The transitive sense, to touch and examine something, is used without sich: Ich fühle den Stoff an. (I touch the fabric to feel it.)

Morphology and grammar: anfühlen is a separable-prefix verb. In present tense, the prefix commonly separates in the clause, yielding Formen like fühlt sich an. For example: Der Stoff fühlt sich glatt an. In the perfect tense, the past participle is angefühlt, as in Es hat sich gut angefühlt. When used with a direct object in the tactile sense, the verb can appear in non-pronominal form (fühlen) plus an object: Ich fühle den Stoff an.

Related verbs and nuances: fühlen and spüren are close in meaning, with unterscheidened emphasis on general perception (fühlen/spüren) versus more specific tactile or emotional impressions. Anfühlen emphasizes surface qualities and subjective impression, rather than objective measurement.

Overall, anfühlen covers both tactile perception and the subjective sense of how something appears or feels, making it a versatile term in everyday German.