Breakdown of Sviđa mu se ova soba.
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
soba
room
mu
to him
sviđati se
to like (Sviđa mi se)
Questions & Answers about Sviđa mu se ova soba.
Why does the sentence use mu (to him) instead of on (he)?
In Croatian, the verb sviđati se (to like) works differently than in English. Literally, it means 'is pleasing to'. So, instead of saying 'He likes this room', you are actually saying 'This room is pleasing to him'. That is why we use the dative pronoun mu (to him) instead of the subject pronoun on (he).
Is ova soba (this room) the subject or the object here?
Grammatically, ova soba is the subject! Because the literal meaning is 'This room is pleasing to him', the room is the thing doing the action. Therefore, ova soba is in the nominative (subject) case.
Why is se placed after mu?
The word se is a required part of the verb sviđati se. Both mu and se are short, unstressed words called enclitics that usually group together in the second position of a sentence. There is a strict order for these little words: a dative pronoun like mu always comes right before se.
If I wanted to say 'She likes this room', how would I change the sentence?
You would only need to change the pronoun mu (to him) to the dative feminine pronoun joj (to her). The sentence becomes Sviđa joj se ova soba.