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The question is basically saying what you never like to do, right?
So, I will answer

Ich mag nicht so viel fernsehen.

I basically want to say I don't like watching a lot of TV.

Are the position of the word nicht and the conjugation of the verbs correct?

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  • I was tempted to VTC as proofreading, but I see one fundamental issue that should be adressed - see my answer below. (Possibly temporary, but too long for a comment.)
    – Stephie
    Dec 4, 2015 at 6:39

3 Answers 3

6

While your suggested answer is gramatically correct and idiomatic, you might want to go back to the question:

Was mögen Sie alles nicht?

alles being the operative word here. If you ask for alles, you are essentially expecting a list, in this case a list of things you dislike. (Note that a list may contain only one element, but you need to understand the intent of the question.)

There is no hint of never implied and it is not restricted to activities unless this can be inferred from the context, which we don’t have here. In plain English:

What are the things you dislike? / What are your dislikes?

You may use your answer if watching TV excessively is your sole dislike, but much more common would be something along the lines of:

Ich mag nicht viel fernsehen, keine weichgekochten Eier und keine besserwisserischen Antworten.

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You misinterpreted the question. This is a correct German question:

Was mögen Sie alles?

It means: »What are all things that you like?« Or shorter: »What do you like?« This question asks for a list of things that you like.

If you want to ask for the things you don't like, you must use this negation:

Was mögen Sie alles nicht?

It means: »What are all things that you don't like?« Or shorter: »What do you dislike?«

You can ask both questions without »alles«:

Was mögen Sie?
Was mögen Sie nicht?

And you would expect almost the same answers. But the word »alles« puts the focus more to the fact, that the questioner wants to know ALL things you like or dislike, not just one.

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Apart from the issue pointed out by others, namely that the question expects a list of things, I want to address the suboptimal wording of your answer.

What you probably wanted to say was:

I don’t enjoy watching TV that much.

But what you ended up saying was:

I don’t want to watch that much TV.

The viel in the answer can only be used to express the excess of watching, i.e. watching lots of TV. Saying you don’t like it as much would be:

Ich mag nicht so gerne fernsehen.

Or:

Ich mag Fernsehen nicht so gerne.

Personally, I would prefer the second one. Note the gerne which conveys the enjoyment (lots of enjoyment, if you insist) and which is also negated by nicht.

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