Questions & Answers about Mér líkar íslenskan.
Because the verb líka works differently from English “to like.”
- In English, the person who likes something is the subject: I like Icelandic.
- In Icelandic with líka, the thing you like is the subject, and the person is in the dative case.
So the literal structure is more like:
- Mér líkar íslenskan. = “Icelandic pleases me.”
- mér = to me (dative of ég)
- íslenskan = the subject (Icelandic)
Ég líkar is ungrammatical in modern Icelandic.
No. Mér is not the grammatical subject here.
- Mér is the dative experiencer (roughly “to me”).
- Íslenskan is the grammatical subject (nominative case, 3rd person singular).
- The verb líkar agrees with íslenskan, not with mér.
So structurally it’s like:
- Íslenskan líkar mér. = “Icelandic pleases me.”
(This word order is also possible in Icelandic.)