Breakdown of Der Kuchen schmeckt mir überhaupt nicht.
schmecken
to taste
mir
me / to me (dative)
der Kuchen
the cake (simple, baked)
überhaupt nicht
not at all (emphatic)
Questions & Answers about Der Kuchen schmeckt mir überhaupt nicht.
Why does the German sentence use mir instead of ich?
In English, we say 'I like the cake', where 'I' is the subject. In German, when talking about food, you use the verb schmecken (to taste). The food is the subject (Der Kuchen), and it 'tastes good or bad to me'. Because the action is happening to you, you must use the dative pronoun mir (to me) instead of the subject pronoun ich.
Why doesn't the sentence use mögen (to like) if the English translation is 'I do not like'?
You could say Ich mag den Kuchen überhaupt nicht, which is also correct. However, for food and drink, Germans strongly prefer using schmecken. Using schmecken sounds much more natural and specific when you are actually commenting on how a meal or drink tastes.
How does überhaupt nicht work together here?
The word überhaupt means 'at all' or 'generally', and nicht means 'not'. When put together as überhaupt nicht, they form a very common fixed phrase meaning 'not at all' or 'absolutely not'. It is used to strongly emphasize the negative in a sentence.
Could I change the word order to emphasize that I am the one who doesn't like it?
Yes! You can move mir to the beginning of the sentence for emphasis: Mir schmeckt der Kuchen überhaupt nicht. Remember that the verb schmeckt must always stay in the second position, so the subject der Kuchen simply swaps places and moves to the spot right after the verb.
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