Learn Hardcore German: Ich esse weniger Kuchen, damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt. - I eat less cake so that my stomach feels comfortable again.

In Ich esse weniger Kuchen, Kuchen is used like a mass noun: “cake in general” or “cake as a substance”. Putting an article in would make it more specific:

Ich esse weniger den Kuchen. – sounds like “I eat less of that (specific) cake.”
Ich esse weniger einen Kuchen. – would be odd; einen Kuchen is “a (whole) cake” as a countable object.

So the version without an article is the natural way to say “I eat less cake (in general).”

Why is Kuchen singular here if I mean “cake” in general, possibly lots of pieces?

German can treat Kuchen as:

A count noun: one cake, two cakes
- ein Kuchen, zwei Kuchen
A mass noun: “cake” as a substance/food
- Kuchen with no article, especially after essen, backen, etc.

In Ich esse weniger Kuchen, it’s mass usage: not focusing on individual cakes or slices, just on the overall amount of cake you consume.

If you really wanted to highlight separate pieces, you could say:

Ich esse weniger Stücke Kuchen. – I eat fewer pieces of cake.
Ich esse weniger Kuchenstücke. – same idea.

But in everyday speech, weniger Kuchen is perfect for “less cake.”

How does weniger work here? Could I say mehr wenig Kuchen or use minder instead?

Weniger is the regular comparative of wenig (“little, not much”), and it’s what you use for “less/fewer”:

wenig Kuchen – little cake
weniger Kuchen – less cake

You cannot say mehr wenig Kuchen for “less cake”. Mehr = “more”, so mehr wenig is nonsense.

Minder exists but is:

much rarer
formal / fixed in certain phrases (minderjährig, minderwertig, nicht minder …)

In normal modern German for quantities, you use weniger, not minder:

Ich esse weniger Kuchen. ✅
Ich esse minder Kuchen. ❌ (sounds wrong today)

Why is there a comma before damit?

In German, subordinate clauses (Nebensätze) are almost always separated by a comma from the main clause.

Damit is a subordinating conjunction (like weil, dass, wenn), so it starts a subordinate clause:

Main clause: Ich esse weniger Kuchen,
Subordinate clause: damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt.

Because of that, the comma is obligatory: you must write it.

What is the difference between damit and dass? Why can’t I say …, dass mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt here?

damit introduces a purpose clause: “so that / in order that”.
dass introduces a content clause: “that” (as in reporting a fact/opinion).

Your sentence expresses a goal / purpose: you eat less cake in order that your stomach will feel good again. That’s exactly what damit is for.

Compare:

Ich esse weniger Kuchen, damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt.
→ I reduce cake so that my belly will feel good again. (purpose)
Ich merke, dass mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt.
→ I notice that my belly feels good again. (reported fact)

Ich esse weniger Kuchen, dass mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt is ungrammatical; dass simply doesn’t express purpose in German.

Why does fühlt go to the very end of damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt?

Because damit starts a subordinate clause, and in standard German word order the finite verb goes to the end of such a clause:

Main clause (verb in 2nd position):
Ich (1) esse (2) weniger Kuchen …
Subordinate clause (verb at the end):
… damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt.

This “verb-final” rule applies to clauses with dass, weil, wenn, damit, obwohl, etc.:

…, weil mein Bauch weh tut.
…, dass mein Bauch sich besser fühlt.

Why is it sich and not ihn or er in damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt?

Here we have the reflexive verb sich fühlen – “to feel (oneself) [in a certain way]”:

Mein Bauch fühlt sich wohl. – Literally: My belly feels itself well.

In German, when subject and object refer to the same thing, a reflexive pronoun is used:

ich → mich
du → dich
er/sie/es → sich
wir → uns
ihr → euch
sie/Sie → sich

Mein Bauch is grammatically third person singular, so the reflexive pronoun is sich.

ihn = “him/it” (non‑reflexive object)
er = subject form “he/it”

Mein Bauch fühlt ihn wohl would mean “My belly feels him well,” which is not the meaning at all. You want “my belly feels well (itself)”, hence sich.

Why is it mein Bauch (nominative) and not meinem Bauch (dative)?

In this structure, mein Bauch is the subject of the subordinate clause:

mein Bauch – subject (nominative)
sich – reflexive object (accusative)
wieder wohl – predicative adverbs
fühlt – verb

So nominative mein Bauch is correct for the subject.

German also has another common pattern with body parts using the dative of the person, e.g.:

Mir tut der Bauch weh. – My belly hurts. (literally: “To me, the belly hurts.”)
Es geht meinem Bauch wieder gut. – My belly is doing well again.

If you wanted to use that pattern, the sentence would need to be rephrased, for example:

Ich esse weniger Kuchen, damit es meinem Bauch wieder gut geht.

Here meinem Bauch is dative, but the verb and structure change. You can’t just switch mein Bauch → meinem Bauch inside the original sentence without changing the grammar.

Could I use um … zu instead of damit? For example: Ich esse weniger Kuchen, um mein Bauch sich wieder wohl zu fühlen?

No, that version is ungrammatical for two reasons:

Form of the clause:
An um … zu clause uses an infinitive and doesn’t take a finite verb like fühlt. So something like … um sich wieder wohl zu fühlen is fine, but not … um … sich wieder wohl fühlt.
Subject rule:
Um … zu normally requires the same subject in both clauses. In your original sentence:
- Main clause subject: Ich
- Subordinate clause subject: mein Bauch
Because the subjects differ, damit is the correct choice.

Acceptable alternatives:

Ich esse weniger Kuchen, damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt. (different subject → damit)
Ich esse weniger Kuchen, um mich wieder wohl zu fühlen. (same subject ich in both → um … zu)

Notice in the second sentence the subject is just ich (“so that I feel well again”), not mein Bauch.

What is the function of wieder here, and is its position fixed?

Wieder means “again”; it shows that the belly felt good before, then didn’t, and now should feel good again.

In the clause damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt, wieder is an adverb placed in the middle field (Mittelfeld), between the subject/pronouns and the main verb at the end.

The usual order there is:

Subject
Object pronouns (like sich)
Adverbs (time, manner, place, etc.)
Verb at the end in subordinate clauses

So:

mein Bauch (subject)
sich (reflexive pronoun)
wieder (adverb “again”)
wohl (adverb “well/comfortable”)
fühlt (verb)

You could move wieder a bit (e.g. damit mein Bauch sich wohl wieder fühlt), but sich wieder wohl fühlt is by far the most idiomatic and natural order.

Why is sich placed before wieder and wohl? Could I say damit mein Bauch wieder sich wohl fühlt?

In German, short pronouns (like mich, dich, sich, ihn, es) usually appear early in the middle field, typically right after the subject and before most adverbs.

So the natural order is:

mein Bauch (subject)
sich (pronoun)
wieder (adverb “again”)
wohl (predicative adverb “well”)
fühlt (verb at the end)

Patterns like … wieder sich wohl fühlt are possible but sound awkward or marked; pronouns “prefer” to stand earlier. So:

damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt. ✅ natural
damit mein Bauch wieder sich wohl fühlt. 😕 unusual / stylistically odd

Why is Bauch used here instead of Magen? Don’t both mean “stomach”?

Both relate to the area of the stomach, but they’re not used in exactly the same way:

Bauch = belly/tummy/abdomen
- Everyday, informal, often used when you just mean “tummy area” or general digestive comfort.
- Common in phrases like Bauchschmerzen, Bauchweh, Bauchgefühl.
Magen = the actual anatomical stomach
- More specific/medical: Magenschmerzen, Magengeschwür.

In daily conversation about feeling bloated or uncomfortable after eating, Germans very often say Bauch:

Mein Bauch tut weh. – My tummy hurts.
Ich habe Bauchweh.

So in your sentence, Bauch sounds natural and colloquial: “so that my tummy feels good again.”

Why do we write wohl fühlt separately, not together as wohlfühlt?

The core verb is fühlen (“to feel”), and wohl is an adverb meaning “well, comfortable”. Grammatically, it’s:

verb: (sich) fühlen
predicate complement: wohl

So in:

Mein Bauch fühlt sich wohl. – My belly feels well.

wohl and fühlt are two separate words. This doesn’t involve a separable prefix like aufstehen → er steht auf; wohl is just a normal adverb modifying how it feels.

You will see dictionary entries written as sich wohlfühlen (“to feel well”), and spelling rules allow sich wohlfühlen or sich wohl fühlen. In actual sentences like yours, the finite verb form appears separately at the end of the clause:

…, damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt. ✅
(You would not write … sich wieder wohlfühlt in the middle of the sentence unless you deliberately treat it as a single lexical item; standard is the split version.)

Can I also say Ich esse weniger Kuchen, damit mein Bauch wieder gesund ist? How does that change the meaning?

Yes, that is grammatically correct, but the nuance changes slightly.

…, damit mein Bauch sich wieder wohl fühlt.
– Focus on subjective comfort/well‑being (“so my belly feels comfortable again”).
…, damit mein Bauch wieder gesund ist.
– Focus on objective health / being healthy (“so my belly is healthy again”).

Both express a similar idea, but:

sich wohl fühlen is about how it feels (comfortable, not bloated, not upset).
gesund sein is about the state of health more generally.

In casual talk after eating too much or having an upset stomach, sich wieder wohl fühlen fits very naturally.