Gern vs. Mögen vs. Gefallen | The Ultimate Guide to Expressing Likes in German

Imagine this You walk into a stylish German boutique, ready to buy a pair of shoes. You spot the perfect pair. You open your mouth to say something… but suddenly, your mind goes blank. Do you say “Ich mag diese Schuhe”? Or maybe “Diese Schuhe gefallen mir”? Or… wait—what about “Ich kaufe gern Schuhe”?

They all seem to mean the same thing, but somehow, they don’t. The sales assistant stares at you, waiting.
Why does German have so many ways to express something as simple as liking something? And what’s the real difference between them?

In today’s Shallow German Deep Dive, we’re cracking open this mystery and making it crystal clear. By the end of this lesson, you’ll know exactly how to say you like something in German or
how to express your likes, dislikes, and everything in between with confidence and precision.

General Overview

Let’s get the broad strokes out of the way first. Both “gefallen” and “mögen” are verbs, which means they carry the action of the sentence. They mostly function like the English verb “to like”, but with different sentence structure around them. “Gern” by contrast, is an adverb, which means it adds something to the verb that is already there.

While it is common to use “gern” with “haben”, it is more commonly used in conjunction with some other verb. It adds a feeling of “gladly” to whatever the action of the other verb is.

Short version

“gefallen” and “mögen” are primarily used to say you like nouns (people, places and things), but “gern” is used to say you like actions or doing things. Let’s start with the easiest one, “mögen”.

Mögen

In the example I gave at the top of this video, “Ich mag die Schuhe.”, I am the one that like something and the something that I like is the shoes, which gives us the subject “ich” in the nominative case and “die Schuhe” as the direct object in the accusative case. For beginners, this is the easiest way to use “mögen”.

Statement Word Order: Subject - Form of Mögen - Noun the Subject Likes

Sie mögen Videos von Herrn Antrim. -
They like videos by Herr Antrim.

Question Word Order without Question Words Form of Mögen - Subject - Noun the Subject Likes

Magst du Erdbeeren? -
Do you like strawberries?

Question Word Order with Question Words: Question Word - Form of Mögen - Subject - Noun the Subject Likes

Was magst du besonders? -
What do you especially like?

Wer mag Kekse? -
Who likes cookies?

Conjugation of Mögen

Speaking of the forms of “mögen”, it is an irregular verb. It follows the same type of pattern seen in the other modal verbs. The singular forms get a stem change and the plural forms are conjugated regularly.

ich mag - I like
du magst - you like
er, sie, es mag - he, she, it likes
wir mögen - we like
ihr mögt - you like
sie, Sie mögen - they, you like 11.32

Magst du mein neues Auto? -
Do you like my new car?

Mein Bruder mag Kuchen. -
My brother likes cake.

Wir mögen Computerspiele. -
We like computer games.

Note that this last sentence does not say we like to play those games, only that we like the games. Liking to play requires a different turn of phrase. 

Mögen with Infinitival Clauses

Since “mögen” is exclusively used with a direct object that is liked, you have to add an extra phrase if you want to say you like to do something using “mögen”. For example:

Wir mögen es, Computerspiele zu spielen. -
We like playing computer games. (Literally: We like it, to play computer games.)

This kind of phrase is known as an infinitival clause. The basic idea is that you remove the subject from that clause and put the verb in the infinitive form (the non-conjugated form) at the end of the sentence with the preposition “zu”. Then you just put whatever other parts of the expression you need in front of “zu” + infinitive.

Wir mögen es, unsere Hausaufgaben vor der Klasse vor dem Klassenzimmer zu machen. -
We like doing our homework in front of the classroom before class.

As you can see, this kind of phrasing can get complicated, if you make longer clauses. The easiest way around this is to use “gern” and eliminate the verb “mögen” from the equation. For example:

Wir spielen gern Videospiele. -
We like to play video games.

Wir machen gern unsere Hausaufgaben vor der Klasse vor dem Klassenzimmer. -
We like doing our homework before class in front of the classroom.

How to Use "gern"

As I mentioned before “gern” is an adverb, which means it modifies the verb. This is the reason you can’t “gern” something. You have to “verb gern”.

Ich schwimme gern im Sommer. -
I like to swim in the summer.

Wir tanzen gern in der Disko. -
We like to dance in the club.

Meine Lehrer geben gern viele Hausaufgaben. -
My teachers like giving homework.

Placement of “gern” is often a question for German learners, but it really isn’t that complicated. It goes as close to the verb as you can without interrupting the subject and verb connection. For example:

Was isst du gern? -
What do you like to eat?

Because this is a question, the subject is after the verb, which means “gern” has to be pushed over one more place. In all of the other examples I have given so far, “gern” is directly after the verb.

Im Sommer schwimme ich gern. -
In the summer I like to swim.

This is similar, as it moves “gern” to the other side of the subject, because the time element started the sentence. This forced the subject to the other side of the verb. Since the subject and verb always have to be touching, like that clingy couple you see on the street, the subject simply switches sides and continues to be next to its sweetheart. “Gern” takes a backseat and gets pushed further down the sentence.

If you switch the word order around to regular word order, it looks like this: 

Ich schwimme gern im Sommer. -
I like to swim in the summer. 

This puts "gern" directly after the verb like all of the other examples.

gern vs gerne

You may have also come across “gerne”. This is exactly the same word and is used completely interchangeably. In fact, “gerne” is the original form and “gern” is the slang version that evolved later. No one really cares about this difference nowadays, but some consider “gerne” to be the more formal of the two words.

gern haben vs mögen

You can also use “gern” with “haben” to mimic the same meaning as “mögen”, but it is mostly used with people and animals, whereas “mögen” is used with anything.

Ich habe dich gern. -
I like you.

Er mag mich nicht. -
He doesn’t like me.

Quick side note: When using “gern haben”, “gern” functions as a kind of separable prefix, which is why you will find “gern” at the end of sentence with “haben”, but closer to the verb in sentences with other verbs.

Gefallen

So far we have learned that “mögen” is mostly used with nouns or at least an object of some sort in the accusative case, while “gern” is used with an additional verb. So what’s up with “gefallen”? What does it do?

“gefallen” and “mögen” are almost entirely interchangeable. The problem is that “gefallen” requires a dative object instead of an accusative one and the sentence structure is turned on its head. 

Die Schuhe gefallen mir. -
I like the shoes.

This is the same as:

Ich mag die Schuhe. -
I like the shoes.

Instead of having the person that likes something be the subject, the verb “gefallen” says something like “this object is pleasing to this person”. With the English construction “to this person”, we can easily see why it requires the dative case, as this is what a lot of other dative constructions do. For example:

Mir ist kalt. -
It is cold to me.

Back to gefallen:

Die Bluse gefällt dem Mädchen. -
The girl likes the blouse.

Die Socken gefallen dem Mann. -
The man likes the socks.

Due to the fact that the subject is always the thing liked in these sentences, the verb “gefallen” is almost exclusively used in the “er, sie, es” or plural “sie” forms. Basically, it can only be “this singular thing is pleasing to someone” or “these plural things are pleasing to someone”. It is possible to say things like this, however:

Du gefällst mir. -
I like you.

Just keep in mind that “gefallen” is a stem-changing verb, which means the du- and er, sie, es-forms of the verb require an umlaut, whereas the other forms don’t.

gefallen with Infinitival Clauses

Just like with “mögen” you can use a clause with an additional verb with “gefallen” in order to say that you like doing something. For example:

Es gefällt mir, Schuhe zu kaufen. -
I like buying shoes.

Again, it is simpler and more common to just use “gern” and avoid all of that nonsense.

Ich kaufe gerne Schuhe. -
I like buying shoes.

Differences in Meaning Between "gefallen" and "mögen"

While generally speaking “gefallen” and “mögen” can be used interchangeably, “gefallen” is generally a more superficial liking, whereas “mögen” is deeper. If you use “gefallen” with regards to a person, it means that you like them on a superficial level. For example:

Mir gefällt diese Frau. -
I like this woman.

You don’t know her name. You know little about her, but what you do know, you like. She is beautiful, humorous or something else that attracts you to her, but you don’t have enough information about her to use “mögen”.

Past Tense of "Mögen" and "Gefallen"

Another oddity happens in the past tense. When talking about things you liked in the past, “mögen” and “gefallen” carry different connotations. “Mögen” in the past indicates that you no longer like that thing or person. For example:

Ich mochte meine Ex-Frau. -
I liked my ex-wife.
or
Ich mochte die Goonies. -
I liked The Goonies.

Both of these say you no longer like your ex-wife and you no longer like The Goonies.

For a full lesson about modal verbs in the past tense and why “mögen” becomes “mochte”, click here.

Der Film hat mir gefallen. -
I like the film.

This version indicates that at the time you watched the film, you liked it. It says nothing about your current thoughts on the film.

All Together Now

So, the full breakdown looks like this:

Expressing Dislike in German

What happens if you don’t like something? How do you negate these various kinds of sentences? Let’s take a look at some examples to figure it out.

Ich mag Schuhe. -
I like shoes.
Ich mag keine Schuhe. -
I don’t like shoes. (I don’t like any shoes.)
Ich mag deine Schuhe nicht. -
I don’t like your shoes.

This kind of negation comes down to what you mean. Do you mean that you don’t like any shoes at all? Then use “kein”. If you mean that you don’t like some specific shoes, use “nicht” after the noun.

Schuhe gefallen mir. -
I like shoes.
Keine Schuhe gefallen mir. -
I don’t like shoes. (I don’t like any shoes.)
Deine Schuhe gefallen mir nicht. -
I don’t like your shoes.

This is basically the same. You can say you don’t like any shoes or just those particular shoes. Either way, you use the same negation methods.

Ich kaufe gern Schuhe. -
I like buying shoes.
Ich kaufe nicht gern Schuhe. -
I don’t like buying shoes.

To negate “gern”, simply add “nicht” in front of “gern”.

There is also “ungern”, which is less common, but can be used to negate “gern”.

Ich esse ungern Spargel. -
I don’t like to eat asparagus.

This isn’t very common, however, so avoid it if you don’t really know what you are doing with “ungern”.

And there you have it—three ways to say you like something in German, each with its quirks. Whether you’re a fan of grammar puzzles or just want to survive your next German conversation, you’ve got the tools now.