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In German, there are a lot of ways to tell «I like to go shopping». I'm interesting how to say this sentence using the verb einkaufen gehen and the form gern. What is the right word order?

Should it be something like: «Ich kaufe gehen ein gern» or there is other form for this sentence?

Thanks.

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    How did you end up with the order you suggested? It can't be much worse. Was it just a wild guess or is there some logic and thought behind it? Don't get me wrong... I'm not trying to ridicule at you. I want to help you understand how to build this correctly yourself. And I think you can, if you used common sense, instead of just wildly splitting things up and throwing them at places.
    – Emanuel
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 17:35
  • Actually, it was kind of combination of common sence and logic. Here is the explanation: 1. The word gern should be the last one in the sentence, e.g. Ich reise sehr gern. 2. The verb einkaufen should be separated to kaufen and ein when using in the sentence. 3. I thought that I have to conjugate the verb einkaufen and not gehen, hence I used to use Ich kaufe gehen ein instead of Ich gehe einkaufen. That's all. But now I realize, that my assumptions were wrong.
    – Mike
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 17:46
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    Ah I see... so "gern" is only the last word in the travel sentence because there isn't anything else. Best not to use such short sentences to make assumptions about word order because you simply don't have enough elements for one to be a true last one. Add a destination and "gern" isn't final anymore. As for the other thing... in English, after "like to" comes the verb. That's what you need to conjugate in German.
    – Emanuel
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 17:53
  • @Emanuel, regarding «in English, after "like to" comes the verb. That's what you need to conjugate in German», yeap, I have to say Ich reise gern, but can I say the same in this way: Ich gerne zu reisen? And if the answer is yes, will the meaning of the sentence remain the same?
    – Mike
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 18:02
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    No, it's wrong. "Gern" is not a verb. Think of "Ich reise gern" as "I travel with pleasure." ... in general "I like to X" would be "I X with pleasure."
    – Emanuel
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 18:14

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The most commonly used form would be

Ich gehe gern einkaufen.

You could also say

Gern gehe ich einkaufen.

which would emphasize "gern", but in most contexts this would sound a bit strange.

Another alternative is

Einkaufen gehe ich gern.

which would emphasize that you like going shopping, but not something else - the sentence somehow requires an "aber" to follow, like "..., aber die Fenster mag ich nicht putzen".

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    Grundsätzlich richtig, aber ich würde nur die erste Variante benutzen. Die beiden anderen klingen meiner Meinung nach ohne weiteren Kontext arg künstlich.
    – Robert
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 19:29

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