Questions & Answers about Jag tycker mest om kaffe.
Tycker om is a two‑word verb that together means to like.
- Jag tycker om kaffe. = I like coffee.
On its own, tycker means to think / to have an opinion:
- Jag tycker att det är gott. = I think it’s good.
So:
- tycker om → like (have a liking for something)
- tycker (att …) → think (have an opinion that …)
You can’t just say Jag tycker kaffe to mean I like coffee; you must include om.
Both are correct and very common:
- Jag tycker om kaffe.
- Jag gillar kaffe.
In modern everyday Swedish:
- gillar is slightly more colloquial and very frequent in speech and informal writing.
- tycker om is completely normal in both spoken and written language, maybe a bit more “neutral/standard”.
You can use either here without changing the meaning.
With mest:
- Jag tycker mest om kaffe.
- Jag gillar kaffe mest.
Both can be used to mean I like coffee the most (of all).
Mest is the superlative form of mycket (much/very) and mer (more). Here it means “most (of all)”.
So:
- Jag tycker mest om kaffe.
≈ I like coffee the most (out of all options).
You often see mest used like this to express your top preference:
- Jag tycker mest om sommar. = I like summer the most.
- Av alla sporter tycker jag mest om fotboll. = Of all sports, I like football the most.
In Jag tycker mest om kaffe, mest is an adverb modifying the liking (the verb phrase tycker om), not the noun kaffe itself. So it sits close to the verb:
- Jag tycker mest om kaffe. = What I like the most is coffee.
If you say:
- Jag tycker om kaffe mest.
it can still be understood, but the word order is less typical and can sound a bit off or add a different nuance (like adding emphasis at the end, almost like “Coffee is what I like best, actually”).
The most natural, default version is Jag tycker mest om kaffe.
Yes, that is correct and perfectly natural Swedish. It just changes the emphasis and style:
- Jag tycker mest om kaffe.
Neutral, ordinary word order, used all the time. - Mest tycker jag om kaffe.
More emphatic / stylistic. The focus is strongly on mest (“What I like most of all is coffee”).
Both obey Swedish word order rules: when you move mest to the first position, the verb tycker must be second (V2 rule), so you get Mest tycker jag …, not Mest jag tycker ….
In this sentence, kaffe is used as a mass noun, just like English coffee:
- Jag tycker mest om kaffe. = I like coffee (in general) the most.
You only use ett kaffe in certain specific contexts, often meaning a coffee (a cup of coffee / a type of coffee):
- Jag vill ha ett kaffe. = I want a coffee.
- Två kaffe, tack. = Two coffees, please.
So:
- General liking → tycker om kaffe
- Specific countable serving → can be ett kaffe in a café context
Kaffe is officially an ett-word (neuter):
- ett kaffe – a coffee
- kaffet – the coffee
However, in everyday speech, you will also hear people treat it as an en-word (especially when ordering coffee):
- en kaffe – a coffee
- kaffen – (less standard, but heard in speech)
For grammar practice and writing, it’s safest to learn it as:
- ett kaffe, kaffet.
But when it’s used as a mass noun (like in your sentence), you don’t see the article at all: just kaffe.
In standard, complete sentences, you normally do not drop the subject in Swedish. You should say:
- Jag tycker mest om kaffe.
However, in very informal contexts (texting, notes, speech fragments), people sometimes omit jag:
- Tycker mest om kaffe.
(like writing “Like coffee the most.” in English)
For learners, it’s better to keep the subject:
- Jag tycker mest om kaffe.
Pronunciation (roughly):
- Jag → /jɑː/ (often sounds like “yah”)
- tycker → /ˈtʏkːɛr/ (“TÜK-ker”, with a short, rounded y like in German für)
- om → /ɔm/ (short “o” like in British stop)
- kaffe → /ˈkafːɛ/ (“KAF-fe”, with double f pronounced long)
Om here is usually not strongly stressed; the main stress is on tycker and kaffe:
- JAG TYCK-er mest om KAF-fe.
In fast speech, om can sound quite short, but it is still present.
It’s the same word form (om), but in tycker om it behaves more like part of a phrasal verb rather than having its usual independent meaning.
- tycka om → to like
- läsa om → to read about
- om det regnar → if it rains
So grammatically it started as a preposition, but in tycker om, you should memorize the whole phrase as a unit meaning to like.
Jag tycker mest om kaffe.
→ “Coffee is what I like the most (of all options).”
It’s comparative / superlative: you’re ranking coffee highest.Jag älskar kaffe.
→ “I love coffee.”
Stronger emotion, but not explicitly comparing it to other things.
You could even use both together:
- Jag älskar kaffe, och jag tycker mest om kaffe av alla drycker.
= I love coffee, and I like coffee the most of all drinks.