Learn Hardcore Russian: Тебе нравится этот стакан?

In Russian, the verb нравиться works impersonally: the thing that is liked (here этот стакан) is the grammatical subject (nominative), and the person who experiences the liking is in the dative case. So тебе literally means “to you,” even though in English we’d say “you like.”

Why do we use нравится instead of любишь?

Любить is a regular transitive verb meaning “to love” or “to really like,” taking a nominative subject and an accusative object (e.g., Ты любишь этот стакан?). Нравиться means “to be pleasing” and is the standard way to express “to like” in Russian, with the person in dative and the liked thing as the subject.

Why is it этот стакан and not это стакан or эта стакан?

Стакан is a masculine noun. The demonstrative этот is the masculine nominative singular form of “this.” Эта would be feminine, and это is neuter.

Why is the verb нравится in the singular form?

Because этот стакан is singular. In Russian, verbs agree with their subjects. If you were asking about multiple glasses (эти стаканы), you’d use the plural: Тебе нравятся эти стаканы?