Questions & Answers about Die Suppe schmeckt den Freunden.
Why does the translation say "The friends like the soup" but Die Suppe is at the start?
In English, "the friends" is the subject who likes the soup. But the German verb schmecken works differently: it literally means "to taste good to". So the German sentence is actually structured as "The soup tastes good to the friends." Die Suppe is the subject doing the action, which is why it comes first.
Why is it den Freunden and not die Freunde?
Because the friends are the ones the soup tastes good to, they are the indirect object of the sentence. In German, indirect objects take the dative case. For plural nouns, the word for "the" changes from die in the nominative to den in the dative case.
Where does the extra -n at the end of Freunden come from? Isn't the plural just Freunde?
This is a special rule for the dative case! When a plural noun is in the dative case, you almost always must add an extra -n to the end of the word (unless the plural already ends in -n or -s). Since the normal plural is Freunde, we add an -n to make it den Freunden.
How do I know that schmeckt means "likes" instead of just "tastes"?
When schmecken is used with a person in the dative case (like den Freunden), it automatically implies that the food tastes good to them. It is the most common and natural way in German to say that you like a specific food or drink.
Learn Die Suppe schmeckt den Freunden and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free