Breakdown of Пример: «Мне нравится этот новый урок».
я
I
новый
new
этот
this
урок
the lesson
нравиться
to like
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Questions & Answers about Пример: «Мне нравится этот новый урок».
Why do we use мне instead of я?
In Russian, the person who experiences a feeling with the verb нравиться stands in the dative case. Мне is the dative form of я, so the sentence literally means “To me is pleasing this new lesson,” i.e. “I like this new lesson.”
What case is этот новый урок and why?
Этот новый урок is in the nominative case. With нравится, the thing that is liked is the grammatical subject, so it stays in the nominative. The person who likes it goes into the dative (here, мне).
Why does the verb end with -ся in нравится?
The -ся ending marks that нравиться is a reflexive (or intransitive) verb. You always include it when using this verb: он нравится, она нравится, мне нравится.
Why is the verb нравится (3rd person) and not нравлюсь (1st person)?
Because in this construction the thing liked (урок) is the grammatical subject, so the verb agrees with it in number and gender. Урок is masculine singular, so we use нравится (3rd singular), not нравлюсь (which would mean “I please” or “I am pleasing”).
How would I say “I like these new lessons” (plural)?
You change both the demonstrative/adjective and the verb to plural:
Мне нравятся эти новые уроки.
Here уроки is nominative plural, so the verb becomes нравятся.
What does этот mean and can I omit it?
Этот is a demonstrative pronoun meaning “this.” You can omit it if you just say Мне нравится новый урок (“I like the new lesson”), but этот adds emphasis on this particular lesson.
Why этот новый урок instead of новый этот урок?
The typical word order in Russian is: demonstrative pronoun (этот) → adjective (новый) → noun (урок). Swapping them (новый этот урок) sounds unnatural unless you’re deliberately emphasizing этот.
What’s the difference between нравиться and любить?
Нравиться means “to like” in the sense of “something pleases you.” Любить literally means “to love” but can also mean “to really like” when talking about hobbies or everyday preferences. Мне нравится музыка = “I like music,” while я люблю музыку is stronger: “I (really) love music.”
How do I say “I don’t like this new lesson”?
Insert не before the verb:
Мне не нравится этот новый урок.