Word
Ich hätte gern drei Spritzer und sieben Tropfen vom Parfüm.
Meaning
I would like three splashes and seven drops of the perfume.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ich hätte gern drei Spritzer und sieben Tropfen vom Parfüm.
und
and
drei
three
sieben
seven
vom
from the (von + dem) / of the (belonging to) / by the (agent in a passive clause)
Questions & Answers about Ich hätte gern drei Spritzer und sieben Tropfen vom Parfüm.
Why do Spritzer and Tropfen not have a plural ending even though there are three and seven of them?
This highlights a special German rule: masculine and neuter nouns used as units of measurement or quantity usually do not take a plural ending. Just like you say zwei Kilo or drei Glas, you say drei Spritzer and sieben Tropfen. Even outside of this rule, masculine nouns ending in -er and -en rarely change in the plural anyway!
Why is it vom Parfüm instead of just Parfüm?
If you were talking about perfume in general, you would just say Tropfen Parfüm (drops of perfume). But here, you are asking for drops of a specific perfume. To say 'of the', German uses von plus the dative case. Parfüm is neuter (das Parfüm), so von dem contracts into vom.
Could I use the genitive case here and say Tropfen des Parfüms?
Yes, using the genitive is grammatically correct and means the exact same thing. However, using von plus the dative case (vom) is much more natural and common in everyday spoken German when talking about parts of a whole or specific quantities.
Why use hätte gern instead of möchte?