"Ich möchte dich besser kennen lernen."
Translation:I would like to get to know you better.
76 Comments
Is the lernen really necessary in this sentence, or would it be okay to just say "Ich möchte dich besser kennen"?
You can say that, but the meaning is a bit different. Your sentence refers to the result, not to the process.
"To know somebody" = "Jemanden kennen"
"To get to know somebody" = "Jemanden kennenlernen" (or "Jemanden kennen lernen", both spellings are permitted)
Yep. It's just phrased as "getting to know somebody" in English (i.e. it doesn't mean "having the chance to know somebody").
Good on you for learning so many languages. Its an inspiration. May i ask how long you've been using this program for learning languages?
Kennenlernen is a separable (trennbares) verb with a different meaning than kennen. English has a similar thing: throw up means something entirely different than throw out. From this example I'm sure you can find many more similar ones.
"I'd like to study you better!" seems like a more strictly accurate translation (lernen => study). Which is creepy, as it is what I would imagine a pathologist saying to their newly arrived dead body...
Lmao!!! Lernen also means "to know" so I don't think that is exactly what they meant
I understand what this sentence means, but I found the structure of it very confusing. I'm not sure why it is structured this way.
When we use a modal verb like wollen or möchten, it will be in the second position and the main verb that here is "kennen lernen" goes in the end of the sentence "am ende".
Can't I translate this as: "I want to better know you" or "I want to know you better"? The answer shows: "I want to get to better know you" does "to get" makes that huge difference here?
I think it's part of the relationahip. To get to know means to go through the process of knowing. To know is simply that. The practical result is the same, but the first has a more subtle, romantic flair.
"Get to" implies receiving the opportunity or permission to know them better, which is what the statement is tacitly asking for, that this person would then grant (or not).
That answer is a little odd in English. Better is "I want to get to know you better", where "get to know you" is a common American phrase.
Can someone tell me why it is "Ich mochte" (sorry I can't type the umlaut) but when you hover over mochte and look at the chart for conjugating the verb it says "Ich mag, du magst, etc.". What is the difference between mag and mochte?
This is a bit difficult to explain at my level, but it is to do with the past/present/future tenses. Mögen (to like) is the present tense (Präsens) and möchte is used for other tenses such as perfect past/simple past (Perfekt/Präteritum).
That is not right, möchten is the conjugative of mögen. In english there are also a few of them. Would for want, should for shall, could for can. In German there is such a form for EVERY verb
In a German class in Austria right now, and my teacher said the difference was more like...ich mag ("I like...x" in general) ich möchte ("I like...x" Specifically). I like to read, in general. I like to read this book. Idk how well I understand it myself, but hope this helps a bit.
Ich möchte es.. i would like to have it Ich mag es.. i like it In southern Germany they sometimes use 'mag' to say 'möchte' but that just a local variation und not 'good' german
One difference would be when you want to be more polite with möchten. The verb wollen is more forceful, more definite, less of a request/preference and more of a demand/action when you are expressing something you wish to do. A polite adult would "would like to" as if to say the listener has a choice in whether to make that happen. A toddler says "I want" and expects that the need will be met.
The english equivalent of mochten is would like The english equivalent of wollen is want Would you say to someone I want some water right now Or I would like some water right now
why the "besser" doesn't go in the end? Is it ok to say "Ich mochte dich kennen lerner besser."?
I won't be able to explain it academically but in simple words: if you have two verbs in a sentence one always goes to end. With modal verbs you don't need the "zu+verb" form, while with other verbs you do. Ich möchte nun nach Hause gehen. Ich werde dich bestimmt anrufen. Ich fange morgen an zu laufen. Lass das sein! etc., etc. Please, could a native speaker explain it more academically and properly?
Adverbs have to be next to verbs. But if there is a "Hilfsverb" like "möchten, würden, können“ the main verb and nothing else goes to the end of the sentence
Could someone explain to me why "I would like to learn to know you better" is incorrect? I mean it is more literal I suppose but it stays in line with "I would like to get to know you better". Maybe I am transliterating from French (French being my maternal language closely followed by English) where we say "J'aimerais apprendre à mieux te connaître." (lit. I would like to learn to know you better). And I am more than certain I have heard it said in English like this before.
'I would like to learn to know you' 'I would like to get to know you'
The former sounds like you want to come to understand the process of knowing them. = I would like to 'LEARN' to know you
The latter sounds like you want to come to understand them. = I would like to 'GET' to know you
"I would like to learn to know you better" sounds strange in English. "I would like to learn more about you" is more comfortable English - but might elicit a response such as "Read my facebook page" or even "You'll find all you need to know about me on Wikipedia".
But if I say "I would like to get to know you better", I'd like to do so in person (not on some website!), and hopefully you'd like to get to know me better, too.
Möchten is a modal verb which means "would like." I replied: "I would like to get to know you better," and I was counted wrong. The website replied that the answer should have been: "I want to get to know you better," when in fact, wollen means "to want." So, if Duolingo wishes to keep the answer: "I want to get to know you better," then they should change the German sentence to "Ich will dich besser kennen lernen," will being the Ich conjugation of wollen.
The verb is mögen (to like). There is no verb möchten in German. The forms möchte, möchtest, ... are just the subjunctive of mögen. They are always conjugated, there's no infinitive möchten, as there is no to would like in English.
Ich mag - ich möchte
Du magst - du möchtest
Er, sie, es mag - er, sie, es möchte
Wir mögen - wir möchten
Ihr mögt - ihr möchtet
Sie mögen - sie möchten
Today, your "I would like to get to know you better" is the favoured response, so Duo must have corrected it some time during the past 10 months.
[25 Mar 2019 10:30 UTC]
In Germany: I would like to get to know you better. In American: I would like to get to know you better BUT.........
Because "I must" and "I want to" do not mean the same thing.
(Also, your sentence is not unjust; it's merely wrong as a translation.)
Ich - möchte - dich - besser - kennen - lernen.
Literally: I - would like - you - better - to know - to learn.
Rearanged for english: I - would like - to learn - to know - you better.
Ea das rightig?
Although I'm way too new to german be able to build this sentence I think it is much more poetic than the english: "I want to get to know you." It specifically points out that not only do you have to learn the other person, but you also have to learn how to learn about them. In english 'get' indicates that it is a privilege, which is true, but the german not only indicates this with 'möchte', but also indicates that it is work, and that is a fact that is often all too missed in the US, love is work; it is a privilege, but it is also work.
Again, I'm super new to learning german, have I read too much into it?
that is right! Möchte fits better here since you would like to do it, and it's hard work, just like 'get' in English! :)
i wrote "i like to know you better" it was incorrect and i cant see the mistake
I wrote as translation: I would like to learn to know you better. It was marked incorrect cause in English you say "get to know". But I'm still pissed cause I think this also transcends the message correctly.
The system doesn't seem to know that 'should' is a first-person equivalent of 'would' in British English for sentences such as this.
what about "I would like to know you better" as a simple translation, can I use it?
"er" sounds trip me up sometimes, so I might accidentally halt right after "Ich moechte dich", which is an entirely new, bold statement....
I typed, "I would like to get better acquainted with you," and got it wrong. I'm an American English speaker...am I missing something about the register in the German that makes this translation too formal, maybe?
How do you pronounce kennen lernen? Apparently i can't proniunce it when j sound exacly like it sounds
This question seems broken on Android and WILL NOT accept "kennen lernen" no matter how many times you try to say it. My girlfriend is a fluent German speaker and it wouldn't accept hers either.
DL hasn't gone over sentence forming yet for me. like if you translate the sentence literally then the words are out of order in english, "i would like you better get to know" if it had asked me to type the german translation of "I would like to get to know you better" i would not have known what order to write it in. can someone add a lesson on that?
My pronunciation may not be perfect but the last part of the phrase is rejected no matter how often I repeat it.
I tried "I would like to learn to know you better" to check how literal the translation might be - but DL didn't like it.
Im confused on why "dich" is in the middle of the sentence when in the translation the "you" is at the end.
Thank you so much duolingo. Months ago I said this to a lovely german girl, to which she replied "Ich habe nichts dagegen". Now she is my best friend!
ich möchte dich besser kennenlernen Its like that... You have to put two words together kennen & lernen.. Due to kennen=knowing While lernen=learing But together means (lets know each other)
Any way the translation of (ich möchte dich besser kennenlernen) is i would like to know you better
I tink the sentence will be different. .. ich möchter dich besser kennen lernen 》I want to know you better.
Is that right? ?
Ok so im a little new to German and the exact translation is " i like you better know
No, ich möchte is not "I like", and you didn't translate lernen.
Also, calling a word-for-word translation "exact" seems misleading to me as different languages phrase things differently - what sounds natural in one language may sound confusing in another or even convey a different meaning.
I wrote it correctly but it gave me that I have incorrect answer. Wtf?
it gave me that I have incorrect answer.
Then you probably had an incorrect answer.
Do you have a screenshot showing your rejected answer?
