Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Week.
And today, we’ll learn how to say favorite in German, because today we’ll take a look at the meaning of
(der) Liebling
And I’m sure pretty much all of you immediately realized which family Liebling belongs to.
It’s the family of lieben and lieb.
Lieben is the German word for to love, and lieb is a bit broader and can mean dear, nice and even well-behaved.
- Liebe Maria, heute bin ich in Berlin angekommen…
- Dear Maria, today I arrived in Berlin…
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Keine Angst, keine Angst! Der tut nichts… der ist ganz lieb.
- Don’t worry, don’t worry! He’s not gonna do anything… he’s a good dog.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
We should note though that lieb works best for living beings and how they “act”.
Like… if you were to say that a room looks lieb because you mean “nice”, you’d actually be saying that the room looks like it has a mild temper and is really friendly and welcoming… like it’s a person.
So it’s better to use lieb only for living things for now.
But let’s get to our actual topic: Liebling.
Taken literally it’d be “loveling” and the two best translations in my opinion are darling and sweetheart. You can use it for your dog but of course is also used by lovers of all ages.
Now, there are many words lovers call one another. The animal kingdom provides dozens of possibilities like
Hase (bunny),
Maus (mouse) ,
Schnecke (snail.. only for women) or
Bär (bear)
Bär is probably only suitable for men though, unless the woman is really huge and furry. I mean… why not. To each their own.
Anyway, the most common one, at least according to the German Wikipedia, is Schatz.
Schatz literally means treasure so the meaning is definitely on point. But the pronunciation… I don’t know… it sounds kind of harsh. Like shots or shuts.
I mean, Imagine yourself on a couch in a candle-lit room, sipping red wine with your sweetheart and you want to say something nice – do you really want to break the silence with:
“SHOTS! What a beautiful evening.”
A soft “Liebling“, possibly with a sexy tongue flap for the ‘l’-sounds, is just fitting the vibe better, in my opinion.
Still, for some reason Liebling has barely made it onto Wikipedia’s list of terms of endearment.
The real reason why we’re learning it today and why you ABSOLUTELY need to include it in your active vocabulary is the fact that it’s the key to saying favorite in German.
How to say “favorite” in German
And I’m saying “key” because Liebling alone doesn’t do it. The way to say that something is your favorite movie or color or animal or whatever is to slap Lieblings- in front of it.
- Was ist dein Lieblingsfilm?
- What’s your favorite movie?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Was ist dein Lieblingslied?
- What’s your favorite song?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Was ist dein Lieblingsessen?
- What’s your favorite food?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Was ist deine Lieblingsfarbe?
- What’s your favorite color?
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Pretty simple and most learners get used to it quickly.
What’s a bit more tricky is to get used saying favorite by itself in German.
- “Oh my god, they have Tastybeer ™ here??? That is my favorite!!!”
Many learners would say something like
- … Das ist mein Liebling(s)!!
But that does NOT work!! It would be understood, but it sounds really really clumsy.
You absolutely HAVE TO say beer again.
- Oh Gott, die haben Tastybier™ hier??? Das ist mein LieblingsBIER!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Let’s do another example.
- “Do you like Sushi?”
“It’s not my favorite, but it’s okay.”
Again, just saying Liebling alone would NOT WORK. And here, the extra challenge is that we don’t even really have a “thing” specified. In this case, Germans would just pick the category that Sushi belongs to, which in this case would be food.
- “Magst du Sushi?”
“Es ist nicht mein Lieblingsessen, aber es ist okay.”
Or you could use the word der Favorit.
- Es ist nicht mein Favorit, aber es ist okay.
But that still sounds a bit odd, and generally der Favorit has a bit of a notion of sports and competition.
- Welches Team ist dein Favorit?
This is NOT asking about your favorite team, this is asking about what team you think is the most likely to win.
So yeah… definitely try to get used to these Lieblings-comounds like Lieblingslied, Lieblingssprache or Lieblings-Netflix-Serie.
And don’t use Liebling(s) by itself in the sense of favorite.
And that’s it for today. This was our look at the meaning of Liebling and how to properly say favorite in German.
If you want to test yourself and see how much you remember you can take the little quiz I have prepared for you.
And of course, if you have any questions or if you want to try out the word and tell me what your favorite something is, just leave me a comment.
Hope you enjoyed it and see you next time on your Lieblingsblog.
Which is this one here… I… I hope.
Oh… in case you ended up here doing a Google search for “Leibling” let me assure you that it is NOT a German word. If you have seen it somewhere it must be a typo.
** vocab **
mein Liebling – my darling
Lieblingslied – favorite song
Lieblingsessen – favorite meal
Lieblingsblog – favorite blog
die Schnecke – the snail
der Hase – the rabbit
der Bär – the bear
lieb – nice, dear, well-behaved
lieben – to love
liebenswert – lovely (rare)
der Schatz – the treasure, also used as “darling”
This was one of my first German lessons. I was reviewing vocab today and der Liebling came up. I came back to this lesson only to find that I’ve been using stand-alone Liebling incorrectly as ‘favorite’. I’m a happy man.
You don’t have the one I need
Lieblingsfurry?
Hallihallo Emanuel, würdest du mir verraten, wir könnte man “to each their own” vom folgenden Satz “Bär is probably only suitable for men though, unless the woman is really huge and furry. I mean… why not. To each their own.” ins Deutsch übersetzen? Wir würdest du es ausdrücken :)?
Jedem das seine.
Geschmäcker sind verschieden.
Jedem Tierchen sein Pläsierchen. (old fashioned)
Über Geschmack kann man nicht streiten.
What is Liebling und Ketchup, does this mean I like to cover my sausage with my darling and ketchup and eat them both or I like to be with my darling while eating ketchup covered sausage
NOt sure what you’re asking, but I guess you mean “Liebingsketchup”? That simply means “my favorite ketchup”
The reference is to question 4 in the quiz: “Which of the following sentence is really common mistake among language learners?” One of the answers is the one I chose (thinking it was a no-brainer) – “Ich hätte gerne eine Wurst mit Liebling und Ketchup.” I can imagine the Wurst server saying, “Der Ketchup ist kostenlos, aber für den Liebling werden 10 Euro extra berechnet.”
I have German ancestors and have always been fascinated with the language
Yeah, your family name looks German :)
Origin: German for nut. Hence I come from a line of nut gatherers. Lol
Gruss Gott meine libchens, willkommen
Is “Gruss Gott meine liebling willkommen” Correct
Well, either “mein Liebling” (singular) or “meine Lieblinge” (plural). You have a mix of it right now.
Das ist gut :)
What’s about “lieblingsauto” ? Its right sentences ?
Yup, that works perfectly. What’s your Lieblingsauto?
Thank you very much for this wonderful post. How would one fit in Lieblings- to an noun phrase with multiple adjectives? For instance, how would one say “That’s my favourite modern german poet”? Thank you very much in advance.
Great question!! It’s not possible to do that with Lieblings- directly. You’d have to rephrase it
– Von den modernen deutschen Dichtern ist der hier mein Lieblingsdichter.
– Diesen hier finde ich von den modernen Deutschen Dichtern am besten.
Meine lieblingsära ist die Modernära.
Modernära existiert nicht wirklich als Wort, aber der Satz klingt gut :)
If I have more than one girlfriend, can I say my Lieblingsliebling? To all of them, of course. ;)
on this example : “Keine Angst, keine Angst ! Der tut nights … der ist ganz lieb.” Shouldn’t be :… Er tut nichts er ist ganz lieb.???
sry for necro, but I would like to answer Ahmmstein’s question:
while the variants using “Lieblingsbandmitglied” are correct, they sound a bit odd. Where I live (Bavaria) it is more usual to say
“Of the six band members, I like X most.”
in German:
“Von den sechs Bandmitgliedern, mag ich X am meisten.” regional
“Von den sechs Bandmitgliedern, gefällt mir X am besten.” Hochdeutsch
Very nice article and comments – nuances that I never thought of, thank you.
Oh, that’s interesting, that in Bavaria you wouldn’t go for the (admittedly long) noun. Thanks for that :).
One question though…. you tagged “mag” as regional and “gefällt” as hochdeutsch. In my explanation on “mögen, gefallen” I said that “gefallen” leans toward being about liking by appearance whereas “mögen” is more illusive. Like… a woman can not “gefallen” you but you can still “mögen” the hell out of her.
To me, “gefallen” in the band example sounds a bit like you’re talking about the looks of the person.
I’m from Berlin though, so maybe we have some regional differences there :)
How common is “Favorit” in place of Lieblingsthing? Could I use Favorit if I wanted to get around having to repeat myself? For example, if I want to say, “Of the six band members, Paul is my favorite.”
“Von den 6 Bandmitglieder, ist Paul mein Lieblingsbandmitglied.” (seems redundant)
“Von den 6 Bandmitglieder, ist Paul mein Favorit.” (seems less redundant)
Or would it be better just to rephrase: “Paul ist mein Lieblingsbandmitglied, aus den 6.”
Please advise and, if you don’t mind, please correct my very guessy grammar. Thanks in advance!
Of the six band members, Paul is my favorite.
Good question. “Favorit” doesn’t exactly have the same vibe. At least for me, it sounds like there’s some sort of competition going on. And that doesn’t always work well with emotional statements.
– Der Song ist meine Favorit.
This sounds like the song is in some competition and you think it’ll win. It doesn’t sound much like liking. At least not nearly as much as “Lieblingssong”
You’re right about the redundancy though. It can be weird. One (possibly colloquial) option would be to skip the first instance
– Von den 6 ist Paul mein Lieblingsbandmitglied.
Turning it around (as you suggested) is better German, for sure.
– Paul ist mein Lieblingsbandmitglied von den 6.
Glad I found this blog! I am trying to learn German, and looking for great resources. Ich liebe die Idee von einem Wort des Tages!
Na dann willkommen und viel Spaß hier :)
Aus dem Wikipedia Artikel: »Zehn Prozent der Deutschen werden bei der Wahl des Kosenamens noch kreativer und setzen auf Eigenkreationen, wie “Hexe”, “Töffel” oder “Dickerchen”.«
hehe. Hexe, ehrlich?
Vermute es gar nicht so schlecht ist, wir haben auch Dickerchen/”fatty” auf Englisch (jedenfalls für Babys).
Also “Hexe” kommt mir extrem unkosenamig vor. Ich kann mir das nur als Scherz vorstellen. Und vielleicht eher für die eigenen Kinder als für den Partner. Für Kinder gibt es viel mehr Möglichkeiten und da ist auch viel mehr “erlaubt”. Ich würde meine Freundin zum Beispiel eher nicht “Dickerchen” nennen, es sei denn, ich suche Streit :).
“Töffel” hab’ ich noch nie gehört, aber da gibt es sicher regional tausend milliarden Varianten. Oder “Töffel” ist so eine Idee von so Helikopter-Eltern, die ihr Kind im frühkindlichen Stadium schonmal auf die Toeffl-Prüfung einstellen wollen :D
Haha. Ach, Mist, ich wurde anfangen, meinen Mann Töffel zu nennen. j/k :)
Also, danke für die Erklärung!
I think we (ok, maybe I) sometimes use -ling in English conversation to mean ‘a type of X’ or ‘an X thingy’, as in ‘it is not a full X but a sort of X’ or ‘an almost X’. Just a complete aside :)
Interesting … an alternative for “kinda like” :). Do you have an example? Oh and also what part of the English speaking world are you from?
Isn’t the German suffix -chen a better equivalent for the English -ling, or at least a diminutive; as in Hundchen, Kätzchen, or Meerschweinchen?
I think “-chen” is much more common than “-ling” and at least based on the discussion in the comments I assume that “-ling” isn’t just making things small and cute. You can add “-chen” to any noun pretty much and be understood. That’s not possible for “-ling”
– Fahrädchen … sounds silly but every one understands “small cute bike”
– bikeling … to me it sounds more like a person who has some strong tie with a bike.
I feel like “-ling” has a notion of life in it that “-chen” lacks.
Right. That’s what I meant to say. The English “-ling” might not have the diminutive qualities that some have suggested, but the German “-chen” certainly does.
Very well explained and interesting. I had sort of figured out the “liebling- ” usage, but this essay put it all into perfect place for me! Thanks!
By the way, referring to Alina’s comment on -ling being a diminutive in English, those words in that list may be found in obscure poetry (and do exist in dictionaries), but I have never heard the words “lordling” or “sweetling” or “nestling” etc., spoken, or seen them written, in my life, ever… The only word from that list that has some currency in regular English is “seedling” but this is not a diminutive of the word “seed”. A seedling is a small plant, grown from a seed, that is now ready to be transplanted into a garden or into nature to grow on its own. So, just to set the record straight, adding -ling to words in English would sound awkward and most people would probably not have a clue what they mean. Just my 2 cents ;-)
That’s good to know. I like to play around a lot with language even if I only have a few rules and sometimes I do something that totally doesn’t work. And then there’s this awkward phase of me explaining that I was trying to make a joke and the other person trying to explain what I did wrong. :D
Alex is right (although “lordling” is familiar from somewhere). “Seedling” is the only normal word Alina listed. I was surprised, actually, that she didn’t mention probably the most common English “-ling” that would occur to me: “weakling.”
There is definitely sort of a smallness vibe to “-ling,” though… a seedling is sort of a baby plant, and a weakling sounds like someone small as well as weak, at least to me.
Actually there are quite a few -ling words and they do imply something small and defenceless
Duckling = a young and small duck
suckling = a young animal, usually a piglet but actually anything that is still on the teat
Hatchling = a newly hatched bird,
fledgeling = a young bird before it has adult plummage
Fosterling, foundling, helpless child without adults
Hireling = somone at the lowest rung of the job market, willing to do anything for money
Earthling = an inhabitant of planet earth, a weak creature according to a powerful alien (allegedly)
Codling = a young cod
Gosling = a young goose
I could go on.
Looking at a couple of online dictionary resources, I guess “-ling” is taken to be a diminutive suffix. But in a lot of the cases you list, it’s really a matter of overlap between “-ling” as a way to turn a verb into a description of a person/animal and the diminutive sense:
– suckling = animal that still suckles
– hatchling = animal that has hatched
– fledgling = animal that has fledged (this is apparently an actual verb)
– foundling = person (OK, it always refers to a child) who has been found (I guess “fosterling” is a thing, but I’ve never heard it in the US)
– hireling = person who has been hired
“Hireling” doesn’t have the connotation to me that you list, at least in terms of “willing to do anything for money” – it just means a hired worker rather than a career professional. I think it does have a bit of a “bottom of the totem pole” sound (or possibly “new guy”), but again, that’s also a function of the fact of just having been hired.
But “duckling,” “gosling,” and “earthling” are pretty clear diminutives, so I don’t want to be too contrary about it.
I have never in all my years heard of a “codling.” :)
Maybe the term “diminutive” just is a bit off and the “-ling” is just a suffix carrying the meaning “young one of a kin”, which is occasionally broadened to mean “one of that kind”.
Either way…. your discussion made me think of a German ling-word which is especially common in the “veganosphere”
– Bratling
– patty)
I have never ever though about or realized how odd a word that is. There are all kinds of Bratlinge (Gemüsebratling, Grünkernbratling, Blumenkohlbratling…) but as far as I can think it’s the only “ling” based on a verb.
“Fry-ling”… :D