Мне нравится психология.

I like psychology.

Breakdown of Мне нравится психология.

• я: I
• нравиться: to like
• психология: the psychology

Questions & Answers about Мне нравится психология.

Why is it Мне нравится психология and not Я нравлюсь психологии if it means “I like psychology”?

In Russian, нравиться literally means “to be pleasing (to someone)”, not “to like”.

So the thing that is liked is the subject in the nominative case, and the person who likes it is in the dative case:

• Мне нравится психология.
  Literally: “Psychology is pleasing to me.”

If you said Я нравлюсь психологии, it would mean “Psychology likes me”, which is not what you want here.

Why do we use мне instead of я?

Мне is the dative form of я (“I”):

• я → мне (to me, for me)

The verb нравиться always takes the person who likes something in the dative:

• Мне нравится музыка. – Music is pleasing to me.
• Тебе нравится фильм. – The film is pleasing to you.
• Ему нравится спорт. – Sport is pleasing to him.

So in Мне нравится психология, мне means “to me”.

Which word is the subject in this sentence, and what case is психология in?

The subject is психология. It is in the nominative singular (dictionary form).

The structure is:

• Мне – dative (“to me”)
• нравится – verb (“is pleasing”)
• психология – nominative subject (“psychology”)

Even though in English “psychology” is the object of “like”, in Russian it becomes the subject of нравиться.

Why is it психология, not психологию, when in English it’s the object (“I like psychology”)?

Because in Russian, with нравиться, the thing that is liked is not an object; it is the subject. Subjects are in the nominative case:

• Психология (nom.) нравится мне. – Psychology is pleasing to me.

You use психологию (accusative) with verbs that take a direct object, for example:

• Я люблю психологию. – I love / like psychology.

Here люблю takes a direct object, so психологию is in the accusative.

What is the difference between Мне нравится психология and Я люблю психологию?

Both can translate as “I like psychology”, but there are some nuances:

• Мне нравится психология.

  • More neutral, often about taste, preference, or first impression.
  • Literally: “Psychology is pleasing to me.”

• Я люблю психологию.

  • Can sound a bit stronger: “I love / am fond of psychology” or “Psychology is a field I really care about.”
  • Uses the “normal” subject–verb–object pattern like English.

In everyday speech, they often overlap and both are fine, but нравится is the default for “I (simply) like X.”

Why is the verb нравится singular, and when do I use нравятся?

The verb agrees with the thing(s) that are liked, i.e. with the grammatical subject:

• Мне нравится психология.
  Subject: психология (singular) → нравится (3rd person singular).

For plural subjects, you use нравятся:

• Мне нравятся книги. – I like books.
• Ему нравятся фильмы ужасов. – He likes horror movies.

So:

• singular liked thing → нравится
• plural liked things → нравятся

What does the -ся ending in нравится mean?

The -ся is the reflexive / “middle voice” ending. Historically, нравиться came from a structure meaning something like “to please oneself, to be agreeable”.

You see -ся / -сь in many verbs that:

• are reflexive: мыться – to wash oneself
• are reciprocal: обниматься – to hug each other
• or have a special “middle” meaning, like нравиться – “to be pleasing”.

You don’t remove -ся here; нравиться is a different verb from нравить (which is rare and not used in this sense).

Can I change the word order in this sentence?

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, and you can move parts for emphasis:

• Мне нравится психология. – neutral: general statement.
• Психология мне нравится. – emphasizes психология (as opposed to other subjects).
• Мне психология нравится. – slight emphasis on нравится; can sound like a mild contrast (“As for me, psychology I do like”).

The basic meaning stays the same, but the focus changes slightly.

How do I say “I don’t like psychology”?

Just add не before the verb:

• Мне не нравится психология. – I don’t like psychology.

Pattern:
[Dative pronoun] + не + нравится / нравятся + [thing(s) liked].

Examples:

• Ей не нравится музыка. – She doesn’t like the music.
• Им не нравятся эти правила. – They don’t like these rules.

How would I say “I like studying psychology” instead of just “I like psychology”?

You can use нравится with an infinitive:

• Мне нравится изучать психологию. – I like to study psychology / I enjoy studying psychology.

Notice the case change:

• психология (nominative) – subject of нравится.
• психологию (accusative) – object of изучать (“to study”).

So:

• Мне нравится психология. – I like psychology (as a field).
• Мне нравится изучать психологию. – I like studying psychology.

How do you pronounce Мне нравится психология? Where is the stress?

Approximate syllable breakdown and stress:

• Мне – mnye (one syllable).
• нра́вится – нра́-ви-тся; stress on нра́.
• психоло́гия – пси-хо-ло́-ги-я; stress on ло́.

So the stressed syllables are:

• МНЕ нра́вится психоло́гия.

Say it smoothly as one rhythm group:

• MNYE NRÁ-vi-tsa psi-kha-LÓ-gi-ya

Is психология feminine or masculine, and does that affect this sentence?

Психология is feminine, nominative singular (it ends in -я, which usually marks feminine nouns).

In this particular sentence, the gender doesn’t visibly affect the form of the verb, because:

• нравится is in the 3rd person singular present, which is the same for all genders.

Gender would matter in other contexts (with adjectives or past tense), for example:

• Интересная психология. – interesting psychology (adjective интересная is feminine).
• Мне нравилась психология. – I used to like psychology (past tense feminine нравилась agreeing with психология).