German Likes and Dislikes Expressions

How to express likes and dislikes in German

     

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German Likes and Dislikes

 

Use the words gern, nicht gern, lieber, and am liebsten after a verb to express preferences.

Ich spiele gern Fussball.	I like to play soccer.
Ich spiele lieber Hockey	I prefer to play hockey.
Ich spiele am liebsten Tennis.	I like to play tennis most of all.
Ich spiele nicht gern Basketball.	I don't like to play Basketball.

 

Or just use haben with any of the four phrases for general likes/dislikes.

Ich habe Fussball gern.	I like soccer.
Ich habe Julia am liebsten.	I like Julia most of all.
Ich habe das Restaurant nicht gern.	I don't like the restaurant.

 

Gefallen is another verb used for expressing likes.  It literally means to please.  To use it correctly, you must switch the object in English with the subject in German.  Das Zimmer is the object in English, but it becomes the subject in German.  And the object in German (mir) would become the subject in English (I).  It is always in the dative case in German.

German sentence	Literally	Translated
Das Zimmer gefällt mir.	The room pleases me.	I like the room.

 

You could always just use the verb mögen to express likes and dislikes, but another common way of saying that you like (doing) something is macht spaß.

Was macht dir spaß? What do you like (to do)?
Fußball macht mir spaß. I like soccer.

 

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