Learn Hardcore Russian: Мне нравится мой привычный маршрут до метро.

English: I like my usual route to the metro.
Subject = I, object = route.
Russian: Мне нравится мой привычный маршрут до метро.
Literally: To me is pleasing my usual route to the metro.

Structure in Russian:

Мне – dative case of я (to me, for me). This is the experiencer of the feeling.
мой привычный маршрут – nominative, this is the grammatical subject.
нравится – the verb that agrees with the subject (маршрут).

So in Russian, the route is the thing that is pleasing; you are the one to whom it is pleasing.

Я нравлюсь means I am liked (by someone), not I like.
For example: Я ему нравлюсь = He likes me.

Why does the verb appear as нравится and not in some other form?

Нравится is the 3rd person singular form of the verb нравиться (to be pleasing, to be liked).

Present tense forms:

он / она / оно нравится – it is liked / is pleasing
они нравятся – they are liked / are pleasing

The verb must agree with the subject in nominative:

Мне нравится мой маршрут. – subject маршрут (singular) → нравится
Мне нравятся мои маршруты. – subject маршруты (plural) → нравятся

So нравится here matches the singular noun маршрут.

What is the difference between Мне нравится мой маршрут and Я люблю мой маршрут?

Both can be translated as I like my route, but there is a nuance:

Мне нравится мой привычный маршрут до метро.
Neutral, descriptive: it is pleasant to you, you find it nice/comfortable. Common in everyday speech.
Я люблю мой привычный маршрут до метро.
Sounds more personal or emotional: I love / really like my route.
This construction focuses more on your internal attitude.

In many contexts, Russians do use люблю with activities or people:

Я люблю сладкое. – I love sweets.
Я люблю эту улицу. – I love this street.

Here, using нравится is slightly softer and more typical when just describing what you find pleasant.

What case is мне, and why is that case used here?

Мне is the dative singular of я.

Dative (кому? чему?) is often used in Russian for:

the person who experiences a feeling,
the person to whom something happens,
the person for whom something is intended.

With нравиться, the person who likes something is put in the dative:

Мне нравится… – I like…
Тебе нравится… – You like…
Ему / ей нравится… – He / she likes…
Нам нравится… – We like…

So мне = to me / for me in this liking-construction.

Why is it мой привычный маршрут, not свой привычный маршрут?

Both мой and свой can refer to my, but свой is a reflexive possessive and is used when the possessor is also the subject of the clause.

Here, the grammatical subject is мой привычный маршрут, not я. The experiencer мне is in the dative, not the subject. Because of that:

Мне нравится мой привычный маршрут. – normal, natural.
Мне нравится свой привычный маршрут. – sounds wrong/unnatural here.

In this sentence, мой is the standard choice to express my route.

Can I leave out мой and just say Мне нравится привычный маршрут до метро?

Yes, you can omit мой; the sentence will still be grammatically correct, but the meaning changes slightly.

Мне нравится мой привычный маршрут до метро.
Emphasizes that it is my usual route (as opposed to someone else’s).
Мне нравится привычный маршрут до метро.
Sounds more general: I like the usual route to the metro (the one that is familiar or standard, not necessarily emphasizing ownership).

Context will decide whether мой is needed. If it is obvious you are talking about your own route, it can sometimes be dropped.

What does привычный mean exactly, and how is it different from similar words?

Привычный comes from привычка (habit). It means:

habitual, that you are used to
customary, familiar through repeated use

So привычный маршрут = the route that I’m used to taking.

Compare with:

обычный маршрут – the usual / normal route (not necessarily personal)
знакомый маршрут – a familiar route (you know it, you’ve been there)
постоянный маршрут – a permanent / constant route

Привычный emphasizes that this is the one you habitually use and are comfortable with.

Why is the preposition до used in маршрут до метро, and what case does it require?

До means up to, as far as, until and usually marks the end point of a movement or distance.

маршрут до метро – the route up to the metro (station)

До always takes the genitive case.

However, метро is an indeclinable noun (its forms look the same in all cases), so:

nominative: метро
genitive (after до): also метро

If the word changed, you would see the genitive clearly, for example:

маршрут до станции (станция → станции, genitive singular)
маршрут до дома (дом → дома, genitive singular)

So grammatically this is до + genitive, even though метро itself does not change form.

What is the difference between до метро, к метро, and в метро?

They each emphasize a slightly different relationship with the metro:

до метро – up to the metro (to the place where the metro station is)
Focus: the end of the route is the metro station area.
к метро – towards the metro
Focus: direction rather than arrival. More like in the direction of the metro.
в метро – into the metro, inside the metro system
Used when you physically go inside the metro (into the station or onto the train). For example:
Я иду в метро. – I am going into the metro.

For a walking route that ends at the station, маршрут до метро sounds most natural.

What gender is маршрут, and how does that affect the sentence?

Маршрут is a masculine noun.

This affects:

the form of the possessive pronoun: мой (masculine), not моя or моё
the form of the adjective: привычный (masculine nominative singular)
verb agreement: the singular subject маршрут → нравится (3rd person singular)

So:

мой привычный маршрут – all in masculine nominative singular
If it were plural: мои привычные маршруты мне нравятся.

Can I change the word order, for example to Мой привычный маршрут до метро мне нравится?

Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible. The main grammatical relations are shown by endings, not by word order.

Possible variants, all grammatically correct:

Мне нравится мой привычный маршрут до метро.
Мой привычный маршрут до метро мне нравится.
Мой привычный маршрут до метро нравится мне.

Differences:

The original version is the most neutral.
Putting мой привычный маршрут до метро at the beginning may add slight emphasis to the route itself.
Moving мне to the end can make it sound a bit contrastive: it is my usual route to the metro that I like (as opposed to someone else).

For learners, the original order in your sentence is the safest and most typical.

What does the -ся ending in нравится mean?

The -ся (or -сь) ending marks a reflexive or non-direct (mediated) action.

With нравиться, it indicates that:

The verb is not simply to like but to be pleasing, to be liked (by someone).

Compare:

нравить (rare, non‑reflexive) – to please someone
нравиться – to be pleasing to someone / to be liked

So маршрут мне нравится literally: the route pleases itself to me → I like the route.

Could I say Мне нравится этот маршрут до метро instead of мой привычный маршрут до метро?

Yes, and it would be fully correct, but the nuance changes:

мой привычный маршрут до метро – specifically your habitual, usual route, the one you are used to.
этот маршрут до метро – this particular route to the metro (maybe one shown on a map, or one of several options), with no explicit mention of habit.

Choose привычный when you want to stress familiarity and routine; choose этот when you want to point to a specific route in context.

How do you pronounce the stressed syllables in this sentence?

Stress pattern:

Мне – single syllable.
нрáвится – нрА‑ви‑тся (stress on а).
мой – single syllable.
привы́чный – при‑вЫч‑ный (stress on ы).
маршру́т – мар‑ШРУТ (stress on у).
до – single syllable.
метро́ – ме‑ТРО (stress on о).

So the main stressed vowels are: нра, привы, маршру́т, метро.