"Ich mag Englisch lieber als Mathematik."
Translation:I like English more than math.
16 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Why is "I prefer English more than math" incorrect? I've been under the impression that using the "mag...lieber" pattern translates to "prefer" rather than just "like."
For anyone still wondering, it is because saying you "prefer something" is the same thing as saying you "like something more than something else". "Lieber als" should be interpreted as meaning that you prefer something over something else, so you could say "I prefer English over Math," but not I prefer something more than I prefer something else, since this would be implying that you prefer both things over some third thing. Hopefully this helps. =)
I believe it would be more proper to say either: "I like English more than math." (which was my answer - marked correct) -or- "I prefer English to math." (should be correct)
Saying "prefer" already gives the "more than" meaning to a sentence, so saying "I prefer something more than another thing" is being a bit redundant.
That's just how I see it. Hope it helps.
It's because the correct way to say it is "I prefer english OVER math"
If you say "I prefer english more than math", its implied you prefer both math and english over something else, with english being your first choice.
Is "lieber als" an idiosyncrasy? It seems to me like it would translate into "rather than", even if that doesn't make as much contextual sense, and that "mehr als" would translate to "more than". It doesn't even list "more" as a possible translation of "lieber".
So is there some reason why the sentence isn't written as "Ich mag English mehr als Mathematik"?
"Ich mag Englisch lieber als Mathematik" is idiomatic, whereas "Ich mag Englisch mehr als Mathematik" is not.
Thanks for the response! I suppose it's best to internalize idiomatic phrases. :P
once again, american english, in english math is maths and should be correct
You can prefer one thing over another but there are not degrees of preference. preference is about putting things in order.
So you can say that you prefer red to green and you prefer green to blue, but don't say you prefer red a lot.
You can like something a little and you can like something a lot, there are degrees of liking, even without comparing it to something else.
So you can say that you like red a lot, and you quite like green but you don't like blue at all.
