“to consider something/someone as something/someone” in German

Question

I am trying to find a German expression for to consider st/sb as st/sb, e.g., as in:

I consider him as my best friend.

I’ve looked up some English–German dictionaries for the expression in German, but the results that I’ve found were not satisfying. For example, in Collinsdictionary.com, I found as a translation jdn/etw für etw halten and as an example for it:

Ich habe das Bild für ein Original gehalten.

However, this rather means I thought than I consider or I regard, i.e.:

I thought the picture was an original.

So I want to ask here that what is the German equivalent of the English expression to consider something/someone as something/someone?

Answer 1

The closest match is:

jmd./etw. betrachten als

Betrachten can also be used in most other contexts for consider as Consider the following example -> Betrachten wir das nächste Besipiel.

Your example:

Ich betrachte ihn als meinen besten Freund.

Halten is a more common substitute, but having a lot of other meanings as well, the context must resolve ambiguities.