How to say “feel like” in German

Hello everyone,

And welcome to a new episode of  Hot Sigma, the series where I explain to you how you too can become of those rare and much admired sigma males like me.
Nah, I’m kidding of course. Hot Sigma is actually short for How to say in German.
In this series, we go over some of the most important phrasings and expressions in English and explore how to say it in German.

And today, we’ll take a look at

How to translate “to feel like”

I feel like that’s a very important phrase and of course there are multiple options in German that are pretty much synonyms.
Nah… come on. Who are we kidding here.
They’re of course NOT all synonyms.

So if you’re ready, let’s jump right in.

First, let’s explore the different contexts to feel like is used for. There’s three of them, and they each have their distinct translation in German. And by translation I mean of course translations. Plural. Because German has more than one per group.

Here’s the first example.

• I feel like a beer.

I think you all intuitively understood this as basically meaning that I want a beer. So let’s call this category: wanting.
And if you’re like “Yeah, what else could it be?” then just take a look at the next example.

• I feel like an idiot.

If we read this the same way we read the first example, it would mean that I want an idiot. But I’m pretty sure the intuitive reading for all of us is that I have a feeling that I AM an idiot. We could call this category: perception.
And then, there’s the third one:

• I know it’s impossible, but I feel like I’ve been here before.

And this one is basically about what I THINK or believe about reality, so let’s just call that: believing.
Cool.
So those are the three distinct types:

1. wanting
2. perceiving
3. thinking

And now let’s see how to say each of them in German.

“feel like” – wanting

Of course, you can just use wollen for this one, but if you want to sound like a German, the two main expressions or phrases you need are Lust haben and Bock haben.

Lust is the German brother of lust, but in German it is WAY more common and also less “intense“.
It can mean lust in the sexual sense…

• Die Prinzessin und der Wald der Lust.
• The princess and the forest of desire/lust.
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This could be the title of a romance novel for example.

But for a context like lust for power, it’s not the right fit, because it just doesn’t sound strong enough (the proper choice for that would be das Verlangen).

The vibe and intensity of Lust haben are more on the level of to feel like and Germans use it in that sense all the time, even in a lot of instances where English would just use to want.

• Hast du Lust, mit uns zum See zu kommen?
• Do you want to come to the lake with us?
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• Ich hatte Lust, die Küche aufzuräumen.
• I felt like cleaning up the kitchen.
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Now, in these two examples, we’re using it for actions (coming, cleaning). And if want to use it for a noun, we need the preposition auf combined with Accusative.
You can think of it as a desire directed “onto” or “at” something.

• Ich habe Lust auf ein Bier.
• I feel like a beer.
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• Hast du Lust auf einen Film?
• Do you feel like a movie?
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And if someone asks us that and we DON’T feel like a movie we just add keine. So we have keine Lust auf.

• Ich habe keine Lust auf einen Film.
• I don’t feel like a movie.
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• Ich habe keine Lust zu arbeiten.
• I don’t feel like working.
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• “Warum kommst du nicht mit uns zum See?”
  “Keine Lust.“
• “Why are you not coming to the lake with us?”
  “I don’t feel like it.“
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All right.
So that’s (keine) Lust haben auf and this one is DEFINITELY one you need to start using if you want to speak natural and authentic German.
And the other option, Bock haben auf, is basically the exact same thing. So the grammar and structure is the same.
It just sounds a lot more colloquial.

• Ich habe voll Bock auf ein Bier.
• I really feel like/want a beer.
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• “Kannst du bitte den Bericht fertig machen?”
  “Nee, kein’ Bock.”
• “Can you please finish the report.”
  “Nah, I don’t feel like it.”
  (The German version is basically a very reduced “Ich habe keinen Bock”. It’s really common to just say “kein Bock”)
  
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“Uh, Emanuel, would the second example really be something appropriate to say at actual work?”
No, absolutely not, of course.
I just feel like absurd examples sometimes. Or in German:

• Ich habe manchmal einfach Bock auf absurde Beispiele.

Now, I’m sure many of you would like to see more examples for Bock haben auf, but I’ve actually talked about Bock and all its meanings in a dedicated article, so I’ll cut it short here and leave a link below if you feel like learning more about Bock.

One more quick thing before we move on: you will sometimes find sich fühlen nach in the sense of the wanting-feeling.

• Ich fühl mich nicht nach feiern.
• I don’t feel like partying.
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The thing with this is that it’s not always sounding idiomatic and it’s just not as common as Bock haben and Lust haben. So stick with one of those two (or both), is what I’d recommend.

You do get ample chance to use sich fühlen though, because that’s what we need for the next type of feeling like.

“to feel like” – Perception

If you don’t recall what this one was about – it’s saying things like this:

• “Today, I feel like a kid.”
  “What does that have to do with the dishwasher, Thomas?”
  “Well, Maria, the thing is, kids don’t empty dishwashers.”
  “Ohh, I see. Well, I feel like a mother then and mothers don’t sleep with children, like, ever.”
  “Okay, okay, I’ll empty it!!”

Very important phrasing obviously.
And in German this is sich fühlen wie. So it’s pretty much the same, except that in German, you have this self reference sich there. It’s in Accusative and it MUST be there.

• Heute fühle ich mich wie ein Kind.
• I feel like a kid today.
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• Bei der Konferenz hat sich Thomas wie ein Idiot gefühlt.
• At the conference, Thomas felt like an idiot.
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The self reference is definitely something you’ll need to get used to, but what can maybe help is just focusing on the pattern you need when you talk about yourself:  ich (verb) mich. It rhymes and you can maybe think of it as doing some sort of chant or magical spell. Think “rhythm” or “flow” and not “grammar”.

But anyway, now besides talking about self-perception, there’s also a feeling like to talk about how other objects feel to you.

• This couch feels like a cloud.

And for that, you actually need sich anfühlen wie.

• Diese Couch fühlt sich wie eine Wolke an.
• This couch feels like a cloud.
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• Wow, das hat sich nicht wie zwei Stunden angefühlt.
• Wow, that didn’t feel like two hours.
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So if you talk about what YOU feel like, then it’s sich fühlen wie and when you talk about how something feels like you need sich anfühlen wie.
Why? There’s no deeper logic that I can offer that would make you go like “Ohhhh, now it’s intuitive.”
It’s just something you’ll have to learn and get used to. But yeah, mixing them up is VERY confusing for a native speaker.

Now, if you want more examples for this, I actually have a dedicated article about the differences between fühlen, sich fühlen and sich anfühlen. I’ll leave a link below, if you want to explore this stuff a bit further.

But now, let’s get to the last type of feeling like. The thinking.

“to feel like” – thinking

And this is the easiest one of all because we can just use words we already know. Or wait… this sounds weird from the perspective of a beginner who maybe doesn’t know them yet. What I mean is that we’ll just use the same stuff we use for thinking.
“Ohhhh, so it’s denken, right?”
Uhm… so… actually…
“denken is to think, no?”
Well uhm, yes, but…
“Dude, you said this was the easiest one.”
Okay, you know what… I think I messed up this intro. I’m sorry.
So the two most natural and common ways to express this feeling like is glauben, which means to believe, or das Gefühl haben, which is having the feeling.

• Ich glaub‘, ich war hier schon mal.
• I feel like I’ve here before.
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• Ich hab das Gefühl, dass Maria da nicht happy mit wäre.
• I feel like Maria wouldn’t be happy with that.
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In English, you could easily also swap in to think in these example and I don’t think it would change much. Maybe it sounds a bit more certain, but that’s all.
And in German, you could technically also use denken, but glauben and das Gefühl haben are WAY better.
I feel like that denken sounds a bit more definite. Not in the sense that what you’re thinking is correct but in a sense that you think what you’re thinking is correct.
glauben and das Gefühl haben communicate that you think what you think but you also mark it as really just assumptions and you might be wrong. Maybe a bit like “I might be wrong but I think blah blah blah”.

• Ich glaube, das sollte gehen.
• I feel like that should work.
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It’s not than denken would be wrong here, but to me it sounds a bit odd.
Important caveat though: this is ONLY true in present tense!
In past tense, glauben is NOT typically used and you’d either use Gefühl haben, if your focus is really on a feeling or just denken it’s about something you thought to be the case.

• Ich dachte, das könnte gehen, aber es ging nicht.
• I felt like it could work, but it didn’t work.
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• Ich hatte das Gefühl, die Fahrt endet nie.
• I felt like the ride never ends.
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What definitely doesn’t work, neither in present nor in past, is fühlen.

• Ich fühle wie ich schon mal hier war…. NOPE!!
• I feel like I’ve been here before.

I have heard something like this many times from learners and it sounds so odd that I’m not sure everyone would even understand what you’re trying to say.
So yeah… maybe, glauben and das Gefühl haben are definitely things to add to your active vocabulary. It’ll make your German sound way more authentic.

Cool.

So now, we know the ways to translate the three different types of I feel like in German – the wanting, the perceiving and the thinking.
And I feel like we’re all ready to wrap this up.
I think this might actually be worth a proper exercise so I’ll whip one up for the coming weeks.
But there’s also a quick recap quiz here so you can check if you remember the key points.
And of course, if you have any questions or suggestions about any of this, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it, have a great day and see you next time!

further reading:

• Word of the Day – “der Bock”
• fühlen, sich fühlen, sich anfühlen – What’s the difference