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! :(