schmecken: Full Conjugation and Usage

Schmecken ("to taste good, to be tasty") is a weak dative verb you'll hear at almost every German meal. Its grammar surprises English speakers twice over. First, schmecken on its own already means "to taste good" — the positive verdict is built in, so you usually don't add a word for "good." Second, the person enjoying the food is not the subject but a dative object: Das schmeckt mir literally reads "that tastes to-me," meaning "I like the taste." The food is the subject; you are the dative. Learning schmecken well teaches you the whole dative-verb pattern early — which is why it sits at A2.

Principal parts

Read this as: schmecken – schmeckte – hat geschmeckt. It is a fully regular weak verb: Präteritum -te, participle ge-…-t. The auxiliary is haben.

The dative-verb logic

This is the heart of the verb. With schmecken, the food is the grammatical subject, and the person who likes it is in the dative:

Because the dish is the subject, the verb agrees with the dish, not the person: a plural subject takes a plural verb (Die Pommes schmecken mir — "I like the fries"). English has no neat one-word equivalent; "I like the taste of it" is the closest paraphrase, but everyday German simply says Es schmeckt mir. For the verb class, see Dative Verbs and The Dative Case.

"Taste good" is built in

Plain schmecken is positive by default. To say something tastes bad, you add a negative word; to praise it more, you add an adverb.

schmecken nach + Dativ = to taste of

To say what something tastes like / of, use schmecken nach + Dativ. Here the verb is neutral (no built-in praise) and nach governs the dative.

Präsens (present)

In practice you'll almost always use the third-person forms (schmeckt, schmecken), since the subject is normally a food or drink, not a person. The ich- and *du-*forms appear mainly in the "be tasted" sense or in idioms.

Präteritum (simple past)

Perfekt (present perfect)

Present of haben + geschmeckt. This is the everyday way to ask, after a meal, whether someone enjoyed it.

See Past Participles of Weak Verbs for the ge-…-t pattern (ge-schmeck-t → geschmeckt).

Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)

Past of the auxiliary (hatte) + geschmeckt.

Futur I

werden + the infinitive schmecken.

Imperativ (commands)

Like passen, schmecken describes a state rather than a controllable action, so its imperative is rare. You don't command food to taste good; instead you wish someone a good meal with the set phrase Lass es dir schmecken! (literally "let it taste good to you" = "enjoy your meal / dig in").

Konjunktiv II (would / hypothetical)

The synthetic form equals the Präteritum (schmeckte), so it is clear on its own; the würde-form is also common.

schmecken vs gefallen vs mögen

These three are the key "liking" verbs and learners mix them up:

• schmecken — for the taste of food and drink specifically. Der Wein schmeckt mir.
• gefallen — for liking the appearance/appeal of things in general (a film, a city, a jacket). Die Stadt gefällt mir. See gefallen.
• mögen — for general fondness, with the person as subject and the thing in the accusative. Ich mag Schokolade.

So you'd say Der Käse schmeckt mir (the taste pleases me), but Ich mag Käse (I'm fond of cheese). For another dative verb that pairs naturally with food contexts, compare passen (to fit/suit).

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Principal parts: schmecken – schmeckte – hat geschmeckt (weak, haben-auxiliary).
• It is a dative verb: the food is the subject, the person is the dative (das schmeckt mir).
• Plain schmecken already means "taste good"; add nicht for the opposite.
• schmecken nach + Dativ = "to taste of / like" something.
• The verb agrees with the food, so a plural dish takes schmecken (Die Pommes schmecken mir).