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1.
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The verb нравиться
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You already know how to say you love something or someone with the verb любить
- "to love" followed by the accusative case of the thing or the
person loved. There is another way of expressing likes and dislikes with the
verb нравиться which means "to be pleasing to" .
Note how the sentence structure is different when the verb нравиться is
used. The thing that is pleasing is in the Nominative case as it is the
grammatical subject of the sentence. The person who likes it is in the Dative
case.
Example:
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Кате нравится русская музыка.
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Katya likes Russian music.
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Dat. of the
person
Nom. of the thing
who
likes
being liked
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The verb нравиться agrees with the thing liked in gender and
number.
More examples:
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Мне нравится твоё платье.
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I like your dress.
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Мне нравятся твои туфли.
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I like your shoes.
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Notes
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The conjugation of the verb нравиться is the following: я нравлюсь, ты
нравишься, он нравится, мы нравимся, вы нравитесь, они нравятся.
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In most sentences the third person singular (он, она, оно нравится ) or
plural (они нравятся ) form of the verb is used. The use of other forms
is limited by the sentences with personal pronouns like Я нравлюсь тебе -
"I am pleasing to you"; Ты нравишься ей - "You are pleasing to
her", etc.
-
Note that the most common third person singular form (нравится) has no
soft sign after т. This is the only difference between this form and the
infinitive form. Also note that they sound the same.
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To say that you do not like something or someone simply add не before
verb:
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Ей не нравится этот суп.
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She does not like this soup.
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Им не нравится такая музыка.
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They do not like such music.
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2.
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The Past Tense of нравиться
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The past tense is formed from the perfective verb понравиться and
has for different forms:
m.: он понравился
f.: она понравилась
n.: оно понравилось
pl.: они понравились
Compare:
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Мне понравилась эта книга.
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I liked this book.
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Мне понравился этот фильм.
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I liked this movie.
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Мне понравились эти люди.
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I liked these people.
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3.
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Нравиться and любить
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I addition to different sentence structures in which these two verbs are used,
there is a difference in the meaning.
The verb любить is used to express stronger feeling (love), the verb нравиться
is used for liking.
The verb любить is also often used for general categories, while нравиться
is more used for specific things. Compare the following sentences:
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Я люблю романы Достоевского, но этот роман мне не понравился.
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I love Dostoyevsky's novels, but
I did not like this novel.
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Я люблю русский балет, но это выступление мне не понравилось.
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I love Russian ballet, but I did not like this performance.
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