Questions & Answers about Мне нравится краткий урок.
Russian often expresses “like” with the structure кому-то что-то нравится (literally: “something is pleasing to someone”).
- Мне нравится краткий урок.
Literally: A short lesson is pleasing to me.
Natural English: I like a short lesson.
Я люблю краткий урок is grammatically correct, but любить is strong: it’s closer to “to love / to be fond of habitually / to prefer”.
- Мне нравится краткий урок → “I like a short lesson (this kind / right now).”
- Я люблю краткие уроки → “I (really) like / prefer short lessons (in general).”
So for a neutral “I like X”, нравиться with a dative pronoun (мне) is extremely common and sounds very natural.
Мне is the dative form of я (“I”).
The verb нравиться is used with:
- Dative case for the person who likes something
- Nominative case for the thing that is liked
So in Мне нравится краткий урок:
- мне = dative → “to me”
- краткий урок = nominative → “(the) short lesson” (subject)
Literal structure: To me (dative) is pleasing (нравится) a short lesson (subject, nominative).
Meaning: I like a short lesson.
The grammatical subject is краткий урок (“a short lesson”), not мне.
- краткий урок → masculine singular, nominative → subject
- нравится → 3rd person singular verb form, agreeing with урок
- мне → dative object (“to me”)
So the sentence is structured like:
[A short lesson] (subject) [is pleasing] [to me].
The verb form of нравиться agrees with the thing liked, not with the person.
Singular liked thing → нравится
- Мне нравится краткий урок.
“I like a short lesson.”
- Мне нравится краткий урок.
Plural liked things → нравятся
- Мне нравятся краткие уроки.
“I like short lessons.”
- Мне нравятся краткие уроки.
So:
- нравится
- one noun/infinite idea
- нравятся
- more than one noun
The -ся (or -сь after a vowel) is the reflexive/mediopassive suffix. With нравиться, it creates a meaning close to “to be pleasing”.
- нравить (without -ся) is rare and not used in this sense.
- нравиться (with -ся) is the standard verb meaning “to be pleasing; to appeal”.
So нравится can be thought of as “is pleasing” rather than simple “likes”. That’s why the thing you like is the subject: урок нравится (“the lesson is pleasing”).
Краткий урок is in nominative masculine singular, because it’s the subject of the sentence.
Agreement rules:
- урок – masculine noun, singular, nominative
- The adjective must match gender, number, and case:
- masculine
- singular
- nominative
So we get: краткий урок (not краткая урок or краткие уроки).
Other forms for comparison:
- краткий урок – nom. sing. masc. (subject)
- краткого урока – gen. sing.
- краткому уроку – dat. sing.
- краткий урок – acc. sing. (same form for inanimate masculine)
- кратком уроке – prep. sing.
In this sentence, it’s nominative because урок is the subject of нравится.
Both can relate to “short”, but they’re used differently:
краткий = brief, concise, not long in duration or content, often a bit more formal:
- краткий урок – a brief/concise lesson
- краткая информация – brief information
- краткий обзор – brief overview
короткий = short in length/time/physical size:
- короткий урок – a short (not long) lesson (focus on time)
- короткое платье – a short dress (physically short)
- короткий перерыв – a short break
In Мне нравится краткий урок, the nuance is “brief/compact lesson” (not too drawn out), possibly also “to the point”.
Yes, you can. It’s grammatically correct, but the nuance shifts slightly:
Мне нравится краткий урок.
“I like a brief, concise lesson.”
Emphasis: compact, to the point.Мне нравится короткий урок.
“I like a short lesson (in duration).”
Emphasis: not long in time.
In many contexts, both may work, but краткий sounds a bit more about conciseness or formal style, while короткий is the more everyday “short” in time/length.
Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and all of these are possible:
Мне нравится краткий урок.
Neutral, most typical order.Краткий урок мне нравится.
Slight emphasis on краткий урок (“It’s the short lesson that I like”).Мне краткий урок нравится.
Emphasis can fall on нравится (contrasting with something else: “I do like the short lesson”).
The basic meaning stays the same: “I like the short lesson.” The differences are mostly about emphasis and context, not grammar.
You’d make both the noun and adjective plural, and use нравятся:
- Мне нравятся краткие уроки.
“I like short/brief lessons.”
Breakdown:
- мне – to me (dative)
- нравятся – are pleasing (3rd person plural)
- краткие уроки – short lessons (plural nominative, subject)
You can say Я люблю краткий урок, but:
- Мне нравится краткий урок is the neutral, everyday way to say “I like a short lesson.”
- Я люблю краткий урок sounds more like:
- “I’m fond of short lessons.”
- “I (especially) like short lessons (as a preference).”
Also, when you use я with любить, the structure is more like English:
- Я люблю этот краткий урок. – “I love/like this short lesson.”
With нравиться, Russian uses a different structure (something is pleasing to me), so we use мне, not я.
Approximate pronunciation with stress marked in CAPITALS:
- мне – mnye (one consonant cluster: [mnʲe])
- нра́вится – NRA-vi-tsa ([ˈnravʲɪt͡sə], stress on нра)
- кра́ткий – KRAT-kee ([ˈkratkʲɪj])
- уро́к – u-ROK ([uˈrok])
So together:
- Мне нра́вится кра́ткий уро́к.
Mnye NRA-vi-tsa KRAT-kee u-ROK.