How does “мне нравится” work in Russian?
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A2 Russian listening practice · Standard Russian · Curated for beginners
Russian “like” works back to front. Мне нравится literally means “it pleases me”: the thing you like is the subject, and the person who likes it is in the dative. So “he doesn’t like oranges” is ему не нравятся апельсины, “oranges don’t please him,” and the verb agrees with the oranges, not with him.
The person forms are мне, тебе, ему, ей, нам, вам, им: тебе нравится?, “do you like it?” Plural things take нравятся. Compare любить, which commonly expresses affection or a general, habitual preference: я люблю яблоки. The pickiest lemur in the world turns down orange and apple, ему не нравится ни апельсинка, ни яблочко, then takes an apple after all.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.