What "dabei" is for in the "sehen Sie dabei nicht ins Bildlexikon" sentence?
And what is its meaning here?
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Did you have a look into a dictionary? Which possible meanings did you find? Which question is still open? We don't want to compete with dictionaries.– user unknownMay 24, 2019 at 16:20
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2 Answers
Presumably, there is a previous sentence like
Lösen Sie die folgende Aufgabe/Lesen Sie den folgenden Text. Sehen Sie dabei nicht ins Bildlexikon
Dabei refers to the previous sentence. It can be translated as
Read the following text. While doing so, do not look into the visual dictionary.
answered May 24, 2019 at 11:04
Those hier- and da-words are backreferencing adverbs made from a preposition.
Er telefoniert beim Fahren.
Er fährt. Er telefoniert dabei.
The preposition bei can take a nominalized infinitive. It's a description of a continous action happening during the action of the finite verb. Dabei serves the same purpose, but references a previous clause for the "backdrop" action.
Ergänzen Sie die fehlenden Wörter. Sehen Sie dabei nicht ins Bildlexikon.
So, this dabei references another action in a previous clause. For example solving a problem.
Sehen Sie beim Ergänzen der fehlenden Wörter nicht ins Bildlexikon.
