Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of our epic German learning adventure.
Today we’ll take a look at how to express liking in German.
And for that, let’s start with taking a look at what liking in German actually is:
"To silently and skeptically approve of the quality and/or
efficiency of something or someone."...
This is the definition that would be written on Wikipedia. I mean… if they would stop deleting my contribution that is.
*badum tishhhhh
But seriously, you probably all know it – German has 3 translations for the English word to like: the two verbs mögen and gefallen, and the weird little word gern.
Here’s an example for each of them:
- I like Berlin.
- Berlin gefällt mir.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- I really really like all the food examples over at Duolingo.
- Ich mag die ganzen Essensbeispiele da bei Duolingo sehr.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- I like swimming.
- Ich schwimme gern.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
As you can see, they really all do translate to to like.
And the big question is of course, if they’re interchangeable (not really) and what the difference is between them.
That’s what we’ll find out today.
For each of the three words, we’ll explore:
- where the word is coming from
- what kind of liking it is expressing
- and how to properly use it.
It’s quite a long article, actually, because each word has its own little specialties and side stories.
So if you just care about one of them, you can just read that section.
Anyway, it’s a fun read and also, it’s absolutely life changing!
Yeah… I totally just said that as click bait. I’m like the Buzzfeed of German learning material.
Anyway, let’s jump right in with a look at mögen.
“mögen” – origin and how to use it
Mögen is a German modal verb and the literal translation of the English to like.
- Ich mag dich.
- I like you.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, mögen is actually related to the English modal verb may and both are related to the German word die Macht which means power. Seems weird at first but in English it is visible too
- He might be mighty...
Anyway… so mögen and may come from something that meant “to be able to, to have the power to” and that means they were kind of close to the meaning of can… especially may still is.
- This may be true.
- This can be true.
At least to me, the difference between those 2 sentences is rather small. Now… mögen is a modal verb in German because it originally was the same as may. And it still is used that way, too.
- Das mag wahr sein.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But today, this meaning is way less important than the to like one… and that evolved a few hundred years ago…. evolution triggered by people being negative.
- Ich mag das nicht.
- I may that not (lit.)
- I can’t do that. (which could also be “Ich vermag das nicht.” in todays German)
changed and became
- I don’t like that.
Far fetched? Maybe. But again, at least the beginnings of the shift are visible in English as well… the word dismay expresses dislike and it comes from may nonetheless.
Anyway… so mögen is the German to may but it first and foremost means to like.
Now let’s talk about the usage. In a way mögen is the little sister of to love. It expresses how you feel toward something or someone. So of course it works great for people and things.
- Ich mag meinen Chef und meine Spüle.
- I like my boss and my kitchen sink.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
It also works for facts. By facts I mean pieces of information that need sentence or sentence like structure of their own to be expressed.
- Ich mag, wie sie redet
- I like how she talks.
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- Ich mag es nicht, dass du mich immer unterbrichst.
- I don’t like that you always interrupt me.
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- Ich mag es, den ganzen Tag zu schlafen.
I like it to sleep all day.(lit.)
- I like sleeping all day.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, of course everyone is like “Why is there an es only in one of the examples?”… uh… oh…. uh… that wasn’t exactly the question I expected. But it’s a really good question, actually. Someone should probably look that up…
But seriously… I don’t think there is a simple rule to that. It might have something to do with the length of the fact. The only thing I can say for sure is that the es is kind of mandatory if you have a zu-construction.
- Ich mag es, bei Regen zu lesen.
- I like reading while it rains.
In these sentences you either need the es or a rather obvious
pause after “mag” to make it work. All right. So, mögen can be connected to nouns (things and persons) and to facts. The one thing it cannot really be connected to directly are activities ie. verbs.
Ich mag den ganzen Tag schlafen.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
In many languages this works just fine. But not in German. At least not yet, that is. People say things like that from time to time but I think it would be marked in a test because officially you’d be supposed to say
Ich mag es, den ganzen Tag zu schlafen.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
One reason why a direct connection without the zu doesn’t really work (yet) might be the may-origin of mögen.
- Ich mag den ganzen Tag am Strand liegen.
- I may be lying on the beach the whole day.
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Okay… so we shouldn’t connect the verbs directly .. at least not in writing. But what about this:
I like sleeping all day.
Is there something like this in German so we don’t have to bother with the zu-construct and the stupid es we have to use for that? Well, the sleeping in the English sentence functions as a noun and as we’ve learned nouns can be connected to mögen. The thing is… the ing-form in English can be a lot of things
- I like sleeping (noun)
- My cat is eating (verb)
- The movie is interesting (adjective)
So naturally the differences become kind of blurry. German is much more… German with that. Of course you can also make verbs into nouns in German, but that will show. A noun will get an article and a gender and a capital letter. Das Schlafen is not just sleeping. It is be THE sleeping. And that makes it a little bit clunky… even more so if there is additional information about the noun.
Ich mag das den ganzen Tag Schlafen.
So … I hope you get the idea… what? Oh you think it is complicated? Well, then check out about when to say “I like to verb” and “I like verbing” in English and tell me if that is any easier…
All right. Here’s one more example
- I like visiting my horse.
- Ich mag es, mein Pferd zu besuchen…. way to go
- Ich mag das mein Pferd Besuchen …. clunky and robotic
- Ich mag mein Pferd besuchen… officially wrong and ambiguous
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So let’s recap… mögen can be connected with things and persons or with facts that are phrased as a side sentence or with a zu-construct. You shouldn’t connect it with “nounified” verbs, because those sound clunky and you shouldn’t connect it directly with verbs because as of yet, it is officially wrong. People do it anyway but it often sounds a bit childish. And there is no need, after all…. because when it comes to liking activities, gern is by far the better pick.
What is “gern” and how to use it
Gern is turbo-common in German.
- “Willst noch ein alkoholfreies Bier?”
“Ja, gern.” - “Would you like another non alcoholic beer?”
“With pleasure/ Oh cool, of course.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Danke.”
“Gern.” - “Thank you.”
“No problem./My pleasure.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And as if it weren’t common enough, marketing people saturate their texts with by placing it in positions even more abstract, implausible and counterproductive than the whole Kama Sutra.
- Bei weiteren Fragen, schreiben sie uns gern eine E-Mail.
- If you have further questions please write us an e-mail with pleasure.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So what is this gern. It comes from the Indo-European root *gher which meant to like something or to want to have something. Are there English words with that root. Sure, there are. For instance greed (die Gier in German), yearn or charisma. And at least for yearn and greed it isn’t too far fetched. I like it, I want it, I want it all for myself… my precious.
The German gern used to mean something like eagerly or zealously … remember the origin… if you like or want something, if you yearn for something you will work gern to get it.
Today’s gern still describes how you do something… but the meaning has shifted a little bit and the best translation is maybe with pleasure. Just the usage is completely different.
- Ich schlafe gern.
- I like sleeping.
I sleep with pleasure. (lit.) - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And there we are… this is what gern is used for. It is an adverb that describes an activity and you could exchange it with other adverb like often or reluctantly.
- Ich schlafe gern/often/reluctantly.
Of course they all mean different things but grammatically they work the same. Having gern in your sentence changes it from a statement about what you are doing to a statement on how you feel about doing that in general…
- Ich esse Pizza.
- I am eating pizza.
- Ich esse gern Pizza.
- I like eating pizza.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So… gern is used whenever you want to express that you generally like an activity. Now, mind you… it expresses the same as to like but it NOT a literal translation of it. German just uses a completely different structure here, a structure that allows us to use verbs as verbs without having to make them into clunky, capitalized, gendered German nouns. That is what makes gern so great and useful.
- Guckst du gern fern?
- Do you like watching TV?
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- Als ich Kind war, habe ich total gern Spinat gegessen.
- When I was a kid, I really liked eating spinach.
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- Ich mache gern Sport, wenn es richtig richtig heiß ist.
- I like doing sports when it is really really hot.
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If you want to say that you don’t like something you can just put a nicht in front of gern.
- Ich gehe nicht gern direkt nach dem Essen schlafen.
- I don’t like going to bed right after having eaten.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
But there is another way…a softer way. The word ungern… also used a LOT in daily talk.
- “Kannst du mir einen Gefallen tun und 2 Stunden auf meinen Hund aufpassen?”
“Hmmm… ungern, ich habe echt viel Arbeit.” - “Could you do me a favor and watch after my dog for a couple of hours?”
“Hmmm…. I’d rather not actually… I really have a lot to do.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Ungern sounds really diplomatic and soft. It leaves a chance that you may be swayed while still expressing that you’d rather not do it. An alternative to ungern is the combination nicht so gern… the so softens the negative nicht enough. But let’s do an example with ungern.
- Ich würde ungern erst um 12 zu Hause sein.
- I would be at home no earlier than 12 not with pleasure (lit.)
- I wouldn’t like being at home only at 12./ I’d prefer being at home earlier than 12.
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- Katzen werden nur ungern nass.
- Cats don’t like getting wet.
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Hmm… if only the last example had some pun potential… I really could use a joke right now… I feel like it does but I can’t put my finger on it right now…
anyway… that is gern.
You use it when you want to say that you generally like activities. It expresses the same idea as to like but the structure and grammar is COMPLETELY different. Putting gern into a sentence changes the whole meaning from “I do that” to “I like doing that” and I am sure that it is hard in the beginning to catch on to that little word, especially when someone uses it in a question… dialogues like this one happen every day :)
- “Wohnst du gern in Berlin?”
“Ja, ich wohne in Berlin…”
“Uh… ja, ich weiß… aber wohnst du GERNE hier?”
“Ohhhhhh… that is like do you like living here, right? Yeah I think we had that in German class…”
Now, before we move on let’s quickly ask and immediately answer 2 questions. One: is there a difference between gern and gerne?
No.
Two: Does gern work for things and persons? By itself, not at all …
- Ich dich gern…. nope
That means nothing because there is no verb in it. But you can combine it with haben and then it works for people… not really for your fridge or a place though.
- Ich habe dich gern.
- I have you with pleasure/gladly. (lit.)
- I like you.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
I don’t really know if there is a difference between this and the mögen version… I think with haben it sounds a little less mature but also a bit warmer .. maybe because “Ich mag dich” is also what people say when they are about to break up… you know.. THIS sentence:
- Ich mag dich wirklich ABER irgendwie…
- I really like you BUT somehow…
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All right. And now that you’re single again, walking down the street and going to bars with friends is a totally different thing… and you’ll certainly use the last option for to like a lot…
How to use “gefallen”
Gefallen… depending on what is your mother tongue this verb can be either really simple or really really frustrating for you. But it is important and you can not do without it. What does it mean? Well… that’s the point. It doesn’t really translate to English. It is I like with the grammatical roles reversed. Let’s look at this. First English
- I like the movie.
Grammatically, I is the subject and movie is the object. I do the action (here: to like) and the movie is what I do it to. And as far as meaning goes… movie is the thing that I feel affection for.
- Der Film gefällt mir.
- The movie ____ to me.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Grammatically, the movie is the subject now. Movie does the action. And I am the object, so I am done something to. But still the MEANING is about the same… I feel affection of some kind for movie. It is NOT this:
- The movie likes me.
Sure, grammatically the situation is the same… but the meaning is reversed.Now the movie feels affection for me. So … what could we put into the blank? One option is to please.
- The movie pleases me.
This illustrates how gefallen works. But we have to be careful. The words do have some common ground but to please is almost NEVER translated as gefallen and vice versa.
All the Romance languages have a direct translation with the same grammar. And those words are in fact related to the word to please. But in English a word with the same meaning AND the same grammar doesn’t exist.
Now, where does gefallen come from? In fact, it is nothing but the ge-form of the verb fallen which means to fall.
- Die Würfel sind gefallen.
- The dice have fallen (lit.)
- The die is cast.
And as random as that may sound… this is the origin of the verb gefallen. Just imagine some Germanic tribe people playing dice in their hut.
- “Tripple six… that has fallen well for me.
- “Dreifach 6… das ist mir wohl gefallen.
This is still a quite literal use because dice do actually fall. Then, a few centuries later a white knight rides by a tower when he suddenly hears a cry…
- “Help, help”
“What’s that?”
“I’m over here in the tower. I am a prisoness.”
“What? A princess? Sounds like she’s in need for some rescuing… now, that fell well for me.” - “Hilfe, Hilfe.”
“Was war das?”
“Ich bin hier drüben im Turm. Ich bin eine Gefangene.”
“Oh … eine Prinzessin. Klingt, als müsste sie ein bisschen gerettet werden. Na, das ist gefallen mir wohl.”
So gefallen has broadened and now refers to your fate in general, be it at a dice game or elsewhere. And then, again a few centuries later, some king listens to some piano piece played by a young guy named Goethe. After Goethe has finished, the king has this to say…
- “Hmmm… that piece of music fells to me, indeed.”
Now, confused looks everywhere… wasn’t there something crucial missing? People start whispering…
- “What does he mean? How did it fall? What is fells, is that a word?”
“Pshhhh… the king liked it. He just doesn’t bother with qualifiers. Now say that it fells to you too or you risk beheading.”
And so a new verb was borne. Gefallen changed and shifted from the original meaning some fate or lot falls to you to you LIKE what has come to you.
And there we are today… when you use gefallen you’re mainly making a statement about whether or not you like something but you’re using the grammar of “it pleases me”.
- Berlin gefällt mir.
- I like Berlin.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And now let’s talk about the usage. And for that it is important that we keep the original roles in mind. The thing or person that gefallen you does something to you. So gefallen is way less about your inner world than mögen.
When you use mögen you are making a statement about your feelings and your feelings only. You are saying absolutely nothing about the object.
With gefallen you at least partially describe the object or person. Take for instance a picture.
- Ich mag das Bild.
- I like the picture.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The picture can be ungodly ugly. But you feel something for it. You like it.
- Das Bild gefällt mir.
- I like the picture.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Here, there is at least some implication that the picture is pleasing to you in a way. Someone else might still find it ugly but to you it is not. It is nice, pretty or whatever. Same for a song.
- Ich mag den Song.
- Der Song gefällt mir.
- I like the song.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Gefallen is saying more about the song than is mögen. Mögen really is just about you while gefallen is making a little implication of the song being pleasing to you.
Gefallen is used to talk about looks and other appearances of people or things. Think of the woman that is sitting at the bar… and your friend says this to you…
- Die Frau da gefällt mir.
- That woman over there… she is kind of nice.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
He cannot mögen her because he doesn’t even know her. But he can like her looks, attitude, hair-style, body language or whatever. So gefallen is more superficial than mögen. Mögen is a feeling, gefallen more of a quick judgment based on appearance.
- “Wie findest du meine neue Frisur?”
“Gefällt mir gar nicht.” - “How do you like my new hairdo?”
“I don’t like it at all.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
So… gefallen is used a lot in context with seeing or hearing. It doesn’t really work for smells or touch.
- I like the smell.
- Mir gefällt der Geruch.
- Ich mag den Geruch / Der Geruch ist schön.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
I don’t know why but the version with gefallen sounds incredibly odd to me. So… think of gefallen as connected to your eyes, ears or your conscious in some way but not to your nose, your tongue or your fingers. Mögen works just fine for all of them.
And here comes another really important point… gefallen is a temporarily limited thing… or at least to an extend. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s look at this:
- I liked my girlfriend a lot.
- I liked the movie a lot.
The first sentence implies that I don’t like her anymore. In the second one, all I am saying is that I liked the movie but I am not saying that I dislike it now. So context does a lot of work here. In German, mögen ALWAYS works like the first sentence. When you put it in past you’re saying that you liked it but you DON’T anymore…
- Ich mochte meine Katze sehr… (but not anymore because it ran away or tore apart my 10,000 dollar cash stack )
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
For gefallen, it is the other way around. You can and should use it in past tense. When you use it in present that usually means that the thing you like is right there… remember, it works kind of like to please. So if something or someone is to please you, that implies presence.
- Der Film hat mir sehr gefallen.
- I liked the movie a lot.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
This is saying nothing about how you are feeling right now… actually people would assume that you still like it. With that phrasing you’re just saying that, when you watched it, the movie was pleasing to you if you will. And you can’t really say this at the bar after movie night.
- Der Film gefällt mir sehr.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
That only makes sense if you’re watching the movie right at that moment. If you want to express general affection for the movie you’d use mögen… in present tense.
- Ich mag den Film sehr.
- I like the movie a lot.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Now, this “rule” is not super strict. You will hear people using gefallen in present although the thing or person is not present right now. Especially in context of people that does make some sense though since it implies that you will see them again.
- Jim gefällt mir sehr. (so I’m looking forward to meeting him again)
- Jim is quite my type / I kind of like Jim.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Jim hat mir sehr gefallen.
- I liked Jim quite a bit.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The second version leaves it open. So it is not like the same example with mögen where using past tense would imply that you don’t really anymore.
So… this sort of behavior with regard to tenses is one huge difference between mögen and gefallen.
Now… speaking of differences… is there a difference between activities and things/persons… like there was for gern and mögen? Well, gefallen doesn’t really work with activities… maybe even less so than mögen.
- Mir gefällt, den ganzen Tag zu schlafen.
This sounds just weird. Maybe it is not wrong but people just don’t say that.
And as far as facts go… yeah … you can do it.
- Mir gefällt, wie sie redet
- I like how she talks.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And to be honest… this is an example where there is little to no difference to the same sentence with mögen. There is definitely an overlap between mögen and gefallen and at times either phrasing is fine. But just try to remember… mögen talks about your feelings, gefallen talks about your judgment of something and makes an implication that the thing is pleasing in a way.
- I like you.
This would make no sense as
- Du gefällst mir.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Why not? Because you want to talk about how YOU feel and not about what effect the OTHER person has on you.
- I like your looks/style.
This is what the German gefallen sentence sounds like.
Can you mögen something that doesn’t gefallen you? I think yes, although I can’t give you an example.
So… let’s wrap this up at this point. We have talked about the 3 different ways to say “I like…” in German. The first one, mögen, is pretty much straightforward to like and you express your feelings with that. The feelings can be toward a living being, a thing or a fact. The only thing for which mögen doesn’t work that well is an activity. You can do it but then you need to make a verb into a noun and is not the best German. So if you want to express your feelings towards an activity, towards doing something, then you’d use the second option… the gern-phrasing.
And then finally we have gefallen. It has this weird role reversal to pay attention to. It is interchangeable with mögen in many occasions but it others it is not. It is best to think of gefallen as making a judgment about the appearance of something or someone.
And that’s it. That was our German blah of the bla what is the diff blah blah blah … If you have any question… go right ahead and leave me a comment. I like reading them :). I hope you liked it and that you maybe got to like German a little more with another confusion out of the way. Now there were 3 likes in the last 2 sentences… can you tell which one is which :)
Further reading:
wpDiscuz
