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?