Он ни разу не опоздал на встречу, и это мне нравится.

Yes, it is a double negative by English standards, but in Russian that is normal and required.

In Russian, words like никто, ничего, никогда, ни разу usually appear together with a negative verb:

• Он ни разу не опоздал.
• Я никого не видел.
• Она никогда не курит.

So ни разу cannot normally stand alone here. You need не with the verb.

English says:

• He has never been late

Russian says, more literally:

• He not once was not late → but this is just standard Russian negative structure, not a logical “double negative” that cancels out.

Ни разу means not once, never even once, or not a single time.

It is stronger and more specific than just a general negative. It emphasizes that something did not happen even one time.

So:

• Он не опоздал = He wasn’t late / He did not arrive late
  This could refer to one occasion.
• Он ни разу не опоздал = He was never late even once
  This refers to repeated opportunities and says zero of them involved lateness.

It is a very common expression in Russian.

This is a question of aspect.

• опоздал = perfective past
• опаздывал = imperfective past

In this sentence, опоздал works well with ни разу because it means not once did he end up being late. It treats each possible lateness as a completed event, and says that zero such events happened.

So:

• Он ни разу не опоздал = He wasn’t late even once
• Он ни разу не опаздывал is possible in some contexts, but it sounds less standard here and is less natural for this idea.

With ни разу, Russian often prefers the perfective when talking about completed events that never occurred.

Because на встречу here uses на + accusative, which often shows direction or destination: to a meeting.

Compare:

• на встречу = to the meeting / for the meeting / to attend the meeting
• на встрече = at the meeting

So:

• Он опоздал на встречу = He was late for the meeting
• Он был на встрече = He was at the meeting

This is a very common pattern:

• опоздать на урок = to be late for class
• опоздать на поезд = to miss / be late for the train
• опоздать на работу = to be late for work

Because нравиться does not work like English to like.

Russian uses a different structure:

• мне нравится это
• literally: this is pleasing to me

So:

• мне = to me (dative case)
• это = the thing that is pleasing
• нравится = is pleasing / appeals

By contrast, любить means to love and is usually stronger:

• Я люблю музыку = I love music
• Мне нравится музыка = I like music

In this sentence, и это мне нравится means and I like that or more literally and that pleases me.

Because with нравиться, the person who experiences the feeling is put in the dative case.

Pattern:

• кому?
  • нравится / нравятся
    • что?
• to whom is pleasing what?

Examples:

• Мне нравится фильм. = I like the film.
• Ей нравится эта идея. = She likes this idea.
• Нам нравятся книги. = We like books.

So in your sentence:

• это = the thing being liked
• мне = the person to whom it is pleasing

That is why it is мне, not я.

Это refers to the whole previous idea: the fact that he has never once been late for a meeting.

So the sentence means:

• He has never once been late for a meeting, and I like that.

Russian often uses это to refer back to an entire statement, not just a single noun.

Examples:

• Он много читает, и это хорошо.
  He reads a lot, and that is good.
• Она всегда помогает, и это приятно.
  She always helps, and that is pleasant.

So here это means something like that fact.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, although different orders can slightly change emphasis.

The neutral sentence is:

• Он ни разу не опоздал на встречу, и это мне нравится.

Other possible versions:

• Он ни разу не опоздал на встречу, и мне это нравится.
• Мне нравится, что он ни разу не опоздал на встречу.

These all express roughly the same idea, but with slightly different focus:

• это мне нравится can emphasize that
• мне это нравится sounds a bit more neutral
• Мне нравится, что... is very natural when you want to make the relationship extra clear

So yes, the order can change, but the original sentence is perfectly natural.

Often yes, but the nuance is slightly different.

• Он никогда не опаздывал на встречу. = He was never late for meetings.
• Он ни разу не опоздал на встречу. = He was not late even once for a meeting.

Никогда не is a broad never.

Ни разу не strongly emphasizes not even one single time.

In many situations they are close in meaning, but ни разу не feels more emphatic and more countable, as if you are mentally checking each occasion and saying zero times.

Because the grammatical subject of нравится is это, and это is singular.

Compare:

• Мне нравится это. = I like this / that.
• Мне нравятся эти книги. = I like these books.

So the verb agrees with the thing being liked:

• singular thing → нравится
• plural things → нравятся

Here the thing being liked is the single idea represented by это, so нравится is singular.

Russian often omits subject pronouns when the context is clear, but here он is natural and useful.

• Он ни разу не опоздал на встречу... clearly tells you who is being talked about.
• Ни разу не опоздал на встречу... could be possible only if the subject is already obvious from context, but by itself it sounds incomplete.

So yes, Russian can drop pronouns, but in this sentence он is the normal choice unless the speaker is continuing an already very clear conversation about him.

A very literal translation would be:

• He not once was late to a meeting, and that pleases me.

A more natural English translation would be:

• He has never once been late for a meeting, and I like that.

This helps show the structure:

• Он = he
• ни разу не = not once / never even once
• опоздал = was late / arrived late
• на встречу = for the meeting / to the meeting
• и это мне нравится = and that pleases me / and I like that

So the Russian grammar is not identical to English, but the meaning is very straightforward once you know the patterns.