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up vote 8 down vote favorite

For example, which of these is correct:

Ich esse gern Pizza

or

Ich esse Pizza gern

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3  
There is even a third alternative: Gerne esse ich Pizza. although it might not be all that elegant... But grammatically it's correct. – musiKk Mar 7 '12 at 14:11

3 Answers

up vote 12 down vote accepted

Both are correct. To me, Ich esse gerne Pizza hints at a question like Was ist Dein Lieblingsessen, whereas Ich esse Pizza gern would be more appropriate as an answer to Magst Du Pizza? That is, I would put the important word (the one carrying new information) at the end of the phrase.

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+1 , I'd like to add that the second alternative "Ich esse Pizza gern." is also a good response if another person just said that he or she doesn't like pizza. "Ich esse Pizza gern." then has a notion of "I don't get how one can't like it" whereas "Ich esse gern Pizza" would be a bit more doubtful as to whether you yourself are a bit weird for liking it... it is veeeeeeery subtle though, my subjective perception and it highly depends on intonation I guess – Emanuel Mar 7 '12 at 16:46
up vote 3 down vote

It depends. When you want to express, that Pizza is your favorit meal, you can say

Ich esse gern Pizza.

When you admit that you would accept your Pizza (probably already ordered or served) you would prefer

Ich esse Pizza gern.

In the first case, I would prefer "gerne" instead of "gern".

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up vote 10 down vote

The first one sounds more natural to a native speaker, even if both are correct. Better: Ich esse gerne Pizza (standard language)

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