dopadati se / dopasti se (to appeal to / like) | Croatian Grammar

Dopadati se / dopasti se is the near-twin of sviđati se: another way to say "to like", and it works on exactly the same alien logic. It is a dative-experiencer verb — the thing you like is the grammatical subject (nominative), and the person doing the liking sits in the dative. Dopao mi se grad is literally "the city appealed-itself to-me", i.e. "I liked the city". What makes the pair worth its own page is the aspect: the perfective dopasti se zeroes in on a single moment of taking a liking — the good first impression — far more sharply than sviđati se ever does. If you already command sviđati se, this page is mostly about that nuance and the irregular perfective forms.

The inversion comes first

Before any conjugation, lock in the frame, because it is the thing English speakers get wrong every time. The English sentence "I liked the city" has I as subject and city as object. Croatian flips it: the city is the subject, and I become a dative clitic.

Role	English	Croatian
subject (nominative)	the city (object!)	grad
experiencer (dative)	I (subject!)	mi / meni
verb agrees with…	—	the city → dopao

Dopao mi se grad od prvog trenutka.

I liked the city from the very first moment. — 'grad' is the subject, 'mi' the dative experiencer; the verb agrees with 'grad'.

💡

The verb agrees with the thing liked, never with you. A man saying he liked a song still says dopala mi se pjesma (feminine), because pjesma is feminine and is the subject. Your own gender is irrelevant — you are only the dative mi.

Aspect

This is the heart of the pair. Sviđati se and dopadati se are close synonyms in the imperfective, but the perfective dopasti se carries a meaning sviđati se struggles to express on its own.

Verb	Aspect	Present 1sg	Core sense
dopadati se	imperfective	dopadam se	the ongoing state of appealing / being liked
dopasti se	perfective	dopadnem se	the single moment of taking a liking — a first impression

The perfective dopasti se means "to catch on with someone, to make a good first impression". It is overwhelmingly a past-tense verb: you report, after the fact, that something or someone appealed to you on the spot. Odmah mi se dopao ("I took to him right away"). This punctual "clicked / hit it off" reading is the reason a speaker reaches for dopasti se instead of svidjeti se — it feels more like a single event landing. The imperfective dopadati se describes the lasting state and is, in practice, somewhat (literary) or careful-register; in casual Zagreb speech sviđati se dominates the present tense.

💡

Rule of thumb: present tense → most speakers say sviđa mi se. Past "it appealed to me / it grew on me at first sight" → dopalo mi se is idiomatic and common. The perfective dopasti se is the form that earns this pair its keep.

Present tense

Dopadati se is a regular a-class verb. The perfective dopasti se has the irregular present stem dopadne- (it is an -sti verb, like pasti → padnem), but its present is rare in main clauses (perfective presents are not "now" tenses) — you meet it mostly after čim, kad, ako.

Person (the liked thing)	dopadati se (impf)	dopasti se (pf)
ja	dopadam se	dopadnem se
ti	dopadaš se	dopadneš se
on/ona/ono	dopada se	dopadne se
mi	dopadamo se	dopadnemo se
vi	dopadate se	dopadnete se
oni/one/ona	dopadaju se	dopadnu se

In real life you will say two forms constantly: the singular dopada se (one thing pleases) and the plural dopadaju se (several things please).

Dopada mi se kako razmišljaš.

I like the way you think. — the whole clause is the subject, so singular 'dopada'.

Dopadaju mi se tvoje nove naočale.

I like your new glasses. — plural subject 'naočale', so 'dopadaju'.

The l-participle

The imperfective is regular. The perfective is the form to memorise: masculine dopao (the -st- stem drops before the vocalised -l → -o), feminine dopala, neuter dopalo — parallel to pasti → pao, pala, palo.

Gender / number of the liked thing	dopadati se (impf)	dopasti se (pf)
masculine singular	dopadao se	dopao se
feminine singular	dopadala se	dopala se
neuter singular	dopadalo se	dopalo se
masculine plural	dopadali se	dopali se
feminine plural	dopadale se	dopale se
neuter plural	dopadala se	dopala se

Perfect tense (perfekt)

The natural tense for this verb. The auxiliary and participle agree with the liked thing; the dative experiencer rides along as a clitic. The perfective dopao/dopala/dopalo se pinpoints the moment something first appealed to you.

Liked thing	Perfekt (perfective)	Meaning
grad (m. sg.)	dopao mi se grad	I liked the city
pjesma (f. sg.)	dopala mi se pjesma	I liked the song
mjesto (n. sg.)	dopalo mi se mjesto	I liked the place
ljudi (m. pl.)	dopali su mi se ljudi	I liked the people

Odmah mi se dopao — djelovao je iskreno.

I took to him right away — he seemed sincere. — perfective for the instant first impression.

Kako vam se dopalo u Dubrovniku?

How did you like it in Dubrovnik? — neuter impersonal 'dopalo', dative 'vam'.

Dopale su nam se sve ideje, ali ova je najbolja.

We liked all the ideas, but this one is the best. — plural subject 'ideje', auxiliary 'su' agrees.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive drops its final -i before the htjeti clitic. Note the perfective: dopasti se → dopast će se (the -ti drops to -t). Used for confident predictions that something will land well.

Liked thing	dopadati se (impf)	dopasti se (pf)
3rd sg.	dopadat će mu se	dopast će mu se
3rd pl.	dopadat će im se	dopast će im se

Vidjet ćeš, dopast će ti se čim ga upoznaš.

You'll see, you'll take to him as soon as you meet him. — perfective future, confident prediction.

Imperative

Like sviđati se, the imperative is rare and marked — you cannot really order someone to be pleased. The forms exist (dopadaj se, dopadajmo se, dopadajte se) in the sense "make yourself liked / win them over", but a learner will almost never need them. To recommend something, switch verbs: Probaj! ("Try it!").

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

The bih-clitics + l-participle, useful for softened recommendations and hypotheticals. As always, the participle agrees with the liked thing.

Liked thing	Kondicional I (perfective)
m. sg.	dopao bi mi se
f. sg.	dopala bi mi se
n. sg.	dopalo bi mi se
pl.	dopali bi mi se

Mislim da bi ti se dopao taj film.

I think you'd like that film. — conditional, softened recommendation.

Other forms

Passive participle: none — dopasti se is intrinsically reflexive and cannot be made passive.
Verbal adverb (present): dopadajući se exists but is vanishingly rare; you will not need it.
Watch the homonym: non-reflexive dopasti (without se) is a different, (formal/literary) verb meaning "to fall to (one's lot), to befall" — Dopalo mu je teško nasljeđe ("a heavy inheritance fell to him"). It governs the dative directly and has nothing to do with liking. The se is what makes it the "appeal to" verb.

Key uses and government

1. The core pattern: dative + se + nominative subject

The fixed skeleton is [dative experiencer] + se + dopada/dopadaju (or perfective) + [nominative thing]. The second-position clitics (mi se, ti se, mu se) cluster together right after the first element. This is the same template as sviđati se — see dative with verbs and adjectives and the wider verb government overview.

Ne dopada mi se ton kojim mi se obraća.

I don't like the tone he uses with me. — singular subject 'ton', dative 'mi'.

2. dopasti se vs svidjeti se — the first-impression edge

Both perfectives mean "came to like", but dopasti se leans harder on the instant, the click, the snap judgement. If you want to say someone or something won you over at first sight, dopasti se is the idiomatic pick. For the broader, more neutral "I liked it", either works; for the standing present-tense state, default to sviđati se.

Svidjela mi se predstava, ali glumica mi se baš dopala.

I liked the play, but the actress really won me over. — 'dopasti se' marks the standout, struck-on-the-spot impression.

3. Contrast with voljeti

Voljeti ("to love / to be fond of") is a plain transitive verb — Volim + accusative — with no inversion. It marks settled, habitual love or fondness, not a reaction to one specific thing. Dopada mi se ova pjesma is "this particular song appeals to me"; Volim ovu pjesmu is "I love this song". See voljeti.

Volim njegove filmove, a ovaj zadnji mi se posebno dopao.

I love his films, and this latest one especially appealed to me. — 'volim' + accusative for settled love, dative inversion for the single reaction.

Common Mistakes

❌ Ja dopadam grad.

Incorrect — the English subject can't carry over. The city is the subject and you are the dative experiencer; the verb is reflexive.

✅ Dopao mi se grad.

I liked the city.

❌ Dopada me se ova ideja.

Wrong case — the experiencer is dative 'mi', not accusative/genitive 'me'.

✅ Dopada mi se ova ideja.

I like this idea.

❌ Dopada mi se ove cipele.

Agreement error — the verb must match the plural subject 'cipele'.

✅ Dopadaju mi se ove cipele.

I like these shoes.

❌ Dopao sam grad.

Wrong — you are not the subject and there is no plain past 'I liked'; you need the reflexive 'se' and the dative experiencer.

✅ Dopao mi se grad.

I liked the city.

❌ Dopasti ću ti se.

Future spelling error — the infinitive drops '-ti' to '-t' before the clitic: 'dopast ću ti se'.

✅ Dopast ću ti se, vidjet ćeš.

You'll come to like me, you'll see.

Key Takeaways

dopadati se / dopasti se is a dative-experiencer "like" verb, just like sviđati se: the liked thing is the nominative subject, the liker is in the dative (clitic mi/ti/mu/joj…).
The verb agrees with the thing: dopada (sg.) vs dopadaju (pl.); the participle agrees too (dopao grad, dopala pjesma).
The payoff is the perfective dopasti se — the single-moment, first-impression "took a liking", mostly past: odmah mi se dopao.
Forms to fix: present dopadnem se, l-participle dopao / dopala / dopalo se, future dopast ću se.
For the everyday present state default to sviđati se; for settled love use voljeti
- accusative.

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