Lesson 4.8, möchte & hätte chaos!

I am struggling to make any sense of when to use hätte and when to use möchte. The course materials says, that Ich hätte gern / gerne is followed by a noun, and Ich möchte is generally used with an infinitive verb.

Can someone then explain to me why the flashcard “Hans would like an order of fries.” is “Hans möchte eine Portion Pommes”, and NOT “Hans hätte…” ???

The same thing goes for the flashcard: “I would like a Pretzel, please”.

Clearly “ein Portion Pommes” and “eine Bretzel” are nouns, why it makes sense to belive “hätte” should be used? 

Hilfe, bitte! :( 

So glad you have asked this question. Been wondering about that too. 

I find the grammar in Rocket confusing for this very reason. 

So hopefully it will be clarified.

Maxie

Hallo Philip-david-schmidtJ and Maxie, 

Thank you for your question. What you will find with learning German is that there a lot of rules, but then at the same time, there are as just as many exceptions!

You are correct in saying that möchte is usually used with an infinitve. However, sometimes Germans omit the infinitve when the meaning is very clear. This is often the case when you want to have or order something, so 

“Ich möchte eine Bretzel kaufen/haben, bitte." - “I would like to buy/have a pretzel, please” becomes “Ich möchte eine Bretzel, bitte." - “I would like a pretzel, please.”

Hope this helps!

Viele Grüße, 

Julia

Thank you Julia. Another puzzle solved.

So would you use bestellen for the  eine Portion Pommes 

Thanks Maxie

Hallo nochmal!

Yes, you could definitely say “Hans möchte eine Portion Pommes bestellen.” - “Hans would like to order a serving of fries."

Viele Grüße, 

Julia