
If you want to say that you like something in German, you have several choices. You can use ‘mögen’, verb + ‘gern(e)’, finden + ‘gut’ or ‘gefallen’.

Mögen gets conjugated and used like a modal verb, except you should use is without a second verb.
How do you conjugate it?
- ich mag
- du magst
- er/ sie/ es mag
- wir mögen
- ihr mögt
- sie/ Sie mögen
How do you use it?
- You use it with a noun:
- Ich mag Tennis. It means I like tennis. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I like playing tennis. I might only watch Wimbledon on TV.
- Er mag Fußball. Again, that only means that he likes it. He might never have played it.
- Wir mögen Pizza. Well, that probably does mean that we like to eat it. What else would you do with pizza? Look at it? ☺

If you want to say that you like doing something you just add the word gern or gerne (it doesn’t matter which one) to whatever action you like doing.
- Ich spiele gern Tennis. This makes it clear that I like playing tennis and not necessarily watching it.
- Er sieht gern Fußball. He likes to watch football, not necessarily play it.
- Wir backen gerne Pizza. Apart from eating, we also like baking the pizzas and want to say so.
Additional words you can use:
- sehr
Ich spiele sehr gerne Tennis. I like playing tennis very much. - wirklich
Ich spiele wirklich gern Tennis. I really like playing tennis. - unheimlich
Ich spiele unheimlich gern Tennis. I enjoy playing tennis incredibly.
Of course, you might not like doing things. Then add these words to ‘gern’:
- nicht
Er spielt nicht gern Fußball. He doesn’t like playing football. - wirklich nicht
Er spielt wirklich nicht gern Fußball. He really doesn’t like playing football. - überhaupt nicht
Er spielt überhaupt nicht gern Fußball. He doesn’t like playing football at all.

Gefallen goes with the item you like and you only need two forms: gefällt, if it’s one item & gefallen, if it’s more.
- Das T-Shirt gefällt mir. I like that t-shirt (lit. that t-shirt is pleasing to me)
- Diese Bilder gefallen mir. I like these pictures.
- Das Bild gefällt mir gut. I like that picture a lot.
- Das BIld gefällt mir sehr gut. I like that picture very much.
- Diese Bilder gefallen mir nicht. I don’t like these pictures.
- Das Bild dort gefällt mir gar nicht. I don’t like that picture there at all.

To say that you like something, you can also use the verb finden plus a verb, or a noun in the accusative plus ‘gut’, ‘sehr gut’, nicht gut’, etc …
A reminder how to conjugate finden:
- ich finde
- du findest
- er/ sie/ es findet
- wir finden
- ihr findet
- sie/ Sie finden
- Ich finde den Film gut. Ich like the film.
- Ich finde die Tasche sehr gut. I like the bag very much.
- Ich finde das Bild nicht gut. I don’t like that picture.
Instead of gut, you can also use super, toll, schlecht, … any adjective that would descrive how you like something.
So, to recap:
- Ich mag Deutschland.
- Ich lerne gerne Deutsch.
- Angelika’s Blog gefällt mir.
- Ich finde meinen Deutschunterricht unheimlich gut.
Ich mag das! I like it (I hope so ☺)
Can you now write some sentences in German about something you like? Let me read them – I would like that!
I’ll leave you with a song from the German Sesame Street: Ich mag dich, du magst mich…
Ich mag euch 😍
PS. If this post makes you want to revise German verb conjugations in the present tense, check out my online course German tenses 1 – the present tense. To get 10% off use the coupon code BLOGPOST.
Ich mag Blümen.
Ich häkele gern.
Meine Katzen gefallen mir.
Ich finde Deutsch interessant.
Thank you for this! I haven’t seen all these put together before, and I hadn’t thought about needing the plural of gefallen when the pleasing thing is plural!
You’re welcome – and great sentences!