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.
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.
If you want to stop hitting the wall in German – Join as a member!
As a member, you can study as much as you want and find lots of information you won’t find anywhere else. Not in class, not in a textbook and not Duolingo or Youtube.
You’ll also get pdf-download, progress tracking, note taking, comment notifications and all practice tools.
Already a member?
Log in here:
I need a quiz for this one! I think I know what I’m doing and then I get all overexcited and gefällt everything
Wow, now that you say it I realized that I have zero quizzes about this particular topic. Not even in the advent calendar.
I’ll add that to my content idea list!
I’ve read this article with interest. One query – in the section about ‘gern’, there is a line which suggests that you can exchange ‘gern’ with other adverb like often or reluctantly. This surprised me. I understood ‘reluctantly’ as meaning ‘widerwillig’ or ;nicht gern;.
Ah nice question!!
I meant that in a functional sense. “often” and “reluctantly” have the same function and would be in the same position in German as “gern” but they do not mean the same.
I modified that bit now so it’s less misleading.
Hope that helps.
Thank you. Understood now.
vielleicht Austern: ich mag gern Austern aber Austern gefällt mir nicht.
Du meinst dir gefallen sie nicht optisch?
Da würde man dann “optisch” dazu sagen.
– Ich mag Austern aber sie gefallen mir optisch nicht.
“Gefallen” can be translated “to appeal” as in “Die gefallen mir”. N’est pas?
Oui.
Hallo Emmanuel, es ist lange her, dass ich erst diesen sehr hilfreichen Artikel gelesen habe, und ich habe ihn jetzt nochmal gelesen. Irgendwann habe ich gemerkt, dass die Deutschen auch gerne sagen: “Ich finde [es/ihn/usw] gut.” Unterscheidet sich diese Möglichkeit von den anderen? Danke sir.
Oh, sehr gute Beobachtung. Das ist auch eine Möglichkeit für “I like it.”
Ich benutze das vor allem für Sachen – Filme, Shirts, Hosen und auch Pläne.
Es ist irgendwo zwischen “gefällt mir” (sehr optisch) und “ich mag” (schon mit ein bisschen Emotion).
Hilft das?
Danke! Das hilft auf jeden Fall, denn ich mache oft Komplimente über Hosen.
Hey Emanuel, I had a question regarding the combination of “gern” and “mögen.” I have heard phrases like: Ich mag das gern or ich mag die Katzen gern streicheln. To me they seem quite redundant and one could easily replace the usage of the other. Can you help me help me understand why people do this or even from your experience with Germans, whether they actually use this or consider this a redundancy?
Great question!
This is redundant, but it’s fairly common and pretty much just a more endearing sounding option. It also sounds a little tiny bit childish, though.
Me personally, I find that very childish/clumsy and I never say that, but people do. It might be a regional thing. My hunch is that it’s more common in the South, but I am not sure.
I’m also not sure what it means.
Like… it could be a general statement about what you like, but also a statement about what you want in the moment. Without context, I read it more as the second option.
Anyway, I’d recommend not adding this to your active vocabulary unless you hear it around you all the time and you like it.
Hi Emmanuel
Just working my way through core revision, so apologies for my questions popping up randomly all over the place. I’m just trying to fill in some of my gaps.
According to [other websites], modal verbs “are used with other verbs to indicate their modality, which means the desire, ability, permission or obligation to do them” or “are used to modify or change other verbs to show such things as ability, ….”.
In your article on ‘zu and um …zu’, you say German modal verbs also take other verbs directly, so without zu or um zu.
Based on what you say above, is mögen really a modal verb at all?? I can’t seem to find an example of what makes mögen (functionally) modal? (other than it conjugates like them, but so does wissen!).
PS I did find one example “Es mag sein, dass …” in a grammar book, but even Google translate and DeepL prefers “Es kann/könnte sein ….” for mag=>may.
My sense is that it would be easier to remove it from my list of modal verbs, as I find that more confusing than useful.
Your arguments totally make sense.
The occasions in which mögen is indeed used as a modal verb are far and few between.
This is indeed something people say in daily life, but that’s about it.
So yeah, if you find it confusing to have it on your list of modals, take it off :)
For me, I can’t really do that, as it would create more confusion than it helps clear up.
Gefallen seems like after reading this it is in the mold of sayings like “fallen in love” to something like ” something falls upon you” and finallly “it appeals to me” or even “stokes my interest”. Like either the “idea of” or some action you have taken in the past resulted in you looking favorably upon it.
Not 100% historically how it went, but it does make sense!
May I ask, where can I find, that officially I should not use mögen together with a verb (without the zu construction)? I am having a discussion about that right now and was looking for that rule but could not find it. My gut would have said it is just used colloquially that way.
There is no such rule.I meant it as advice, because it doesn’t sounds very good and it’s better for the learner to get used to “gern”. It is used colloquially, yes, but it’s not one of those colloquialisms that sound “good” or fluent.
Ich mag dich
Danke :)
Hallo –
Also nachdem ich den Artikel gelesen habe, habe ich diesen Satz gelesen:
Claudia, magst du das Fenster zumachen? Mir voll kalt!
Wissend, dass moegen mit “kann” uebersetzt werden koennte, wird das “moegen” hier als Aufforderung verwendet, aehnlich wie koennte/kann?
Vielen Dank
Why does a well known online language teacher translate “The girl is cold” as “Dem Mädchen ist kalt”? What’s with the Dem?
That’s because the girl is in Dative case. In German you say
– “to me” is cold.
and not “I am cold.”
– Mir ist kalt.
– Dir ist kalt.
– Dem Mädchen (to the girl) ist kalt.
Does that help?
Ich lese gern Ihre detaillierte Artikel. ;)
Das freut mich :)!
Your analysis of the 3 likes fell to me. It pleases me to say that I liked it, alot.
Super, das höre ich gerne :)!
ja das ist sehrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr gut
Simple question/request: is there a list of your various topics available or is it necessary or best to locate the topic as needed through Google or You-Tube. Your posts are great help!
There are several options, actually.
You can explore the “Vocabulary” archives, there, you can find the articles (aside from the grammar course) listed in different ways. Those are not complete though because some of them, I have to update manually.
Or you can go to “Dictionary”. There, you can type a word and it’ll show up if I talked about it in an article, complete with translation and (soon) examples.
It’s still in beta so it is a bit slow, but we’ll update that in the coming week and then it’s a proper search.
Google is good as well, but Youtube not so much. I barely have any content there.
Hope that helps :)
WOW… Emanuel you are a language magician. You teach language in such a way i didnt even have to memorise the words. Just POOFFF absorbed!!
Vielen Dank :). Glad to hear that it works so well for you!!
Hey there!
Just a quick question from a (aspiring) writer.
If I was telling a story, I would use the written past. In this case, “mochte” doesn’t necessarily imply that the person stopped liking, right?
For example: “Er sah seine Freundin an. Er mochte sie ganz gern.”
Or should I use “gefallen” there?
You’re right. In that context “mochte” doesn’t imply that it’s over. “ganz” does not fit here, by the way. And “mochte” is definitely the better choice, unless you want to specifically speak about that he likes how she looks.
As always, liked it! thanks
“Ungern”. I checked with my German friend about this word as I had never heard people saying it. He said he himself has never used it or heard anyone using that word in conversation. It is not incorrect but it is not commonly spoken.
Well, statistically, “ungern” is about 6 times less common than “gern”. And for perspective: in print, it’s about as common as the word “Topf”.
So yeah… I don’t deny your personal experience but it’s rather an exception. It’s very commonly spoken.
Thanks for the German help. In English, “everyday” is an adjective. You can say that everyone does it every day. You can say that it’s an everyday mistake.
Ah, this is actually one of my most common mistakes but you’re the first one who made it clear to me what I’m doing wrong. I might actually get it right from now on, so thanks :)