Da li ti se sviđa ova kuhinja?

A very literal breakdown is:

• Da li = marks a yes/no question
• ti = to you
• se sviđa = is pleasing / appeals
• ova kuhinja = this kitchen

So the sentence is structured more like:

Does this kitchen appeal to you?

That is why the Serbian grammar looks different from English Do you like this kitchen?

Da li is a very common way to form a yes/no question in Serbian.

So:

• Ti se sviđa ova kuhinja. is not a normal statement
• Da li ti se sviđa ova kuhinja? = Do you like this kitchen?

It does not really have a direct word-for-word English equivalent. Its job is just to signal that the sentence is a question.

You may also see:

• Sviđa li ti se ova kuhinja? — more formal or written
• Je l' ti se sviđa ova kuhinja? — very common in speech

Because with sviđati se, the person who likes something is put in the dative case, not as a normal subject.

So:

• ti = to you
• mi = to me
• mu / joj = to him / to her
• nam = to us

This is one of the big differences from English. In English, you is the subject in you like this kitchen. In Serbian, the kitchen is grammatically the thing doing the pleasing, and you is the person receiving that impression.

So ti here means to you, not subject you.

Se is part of the verb expression sviđati se.

The dictionary form is sviđati se, not just sviđati. So when you learn this verb, you should learn it together with se.

In this sentence:

• sviđa se = is pleasing / appeals

Even though se is often called a reflexive particle, in this case it is best to think of it as a fixed part of the verb. You normally cannot just leave it out.

For example:

• Sviđa mi se film. = I like the film.
• Ne sviđa mi se film. = I don’t like the film.

Because the grammatical subject is ova kuhinja.

In Serbian, with sviđati se, the thing that is liked is the subject, and the verb agrees with that thing.

Here:

• ova kuhinja = feminine singular
• so the verb is sviđa = third person singular

Compare:

• Sviđa mi se ova kuhinja. = I like this kitchen.
• Sviđaju mi se ove kuhinje. = I like these kitchens.

So the verb changes according to what is pleasing, not according to the person who likes it.

Because ova kuhinja is in the nominative case, since it is the grammatical subject of the sentence.

That may feel strange to an English speaker, because in English this kitchen feels like the object of like. But in Serbian, this sentence is built more like:

This kitchen is pleasing to you.

So:

• ova kuhinja = nominative, because it is the subject
• ovu kuhinju would be accusative, and would be used with a different verb, for example voleti

Compare:

• Da li ti se sviđa ova kuhinja? = Do you like this kitchen?
• Da li voliš ovu kuhinju? = Do you love/like this kitchen? but this sounds stronger and less natural for a casual opinion about appearance or design

Because ova has to agree with kuhinja in gender, number, and case.

• kuhinja is feminine
• it is singular
• here it is in the nominative

So the correct form is ova.

Compare:

• ovaj sto = this table masculine
• ova kuhinja = this kitchen feminine
• ovo kupatilo = this bathroom neuter

This kind of agreement is very important in Serbian.

Yes, Serbian word order is more flexible than English, but not completely free.

The most neutral version here is:

• Da li ti se sviđa ova kuhinja?

You could also hear:

• Sviđa li ti se ova kuhinja? — formal/written style
• Ova kuhinja ti se sviđa? — conversational, with question intonation

However, the little clitic words such as ti and se have fairly strict placement rules. In this sentence, ti se stays together in a natural clitic position. So a form like Da li se ti sviđa... is not standard.

If you want emphasis, you can use the full pronoun:

• Da li se tebi sviđa ova kuhinja? = Do you like this kitchen? with emphasis on you

A very natural short answer is:

• Da, sviđa mi se. = Yes, I like it.
• Ne, ne sviđa mi se. = No, I don’t like it.

You can also repeat the noun:

• Da, sviđa mi se ova kuhinja.
• Ne, ne sviđa mi se ova kuhinja.

Notice the pattern:

• question: ti se
• answer: mi se

because the person changes from you to me.

Because sviđati se is the natural verb for saying that something looks good to you, appeals to you, or you like it in the sense of personal taste or impression.

For a kitchen, a design, a dress, a song, a movie, or a color, sviđati se is often the most natural choice.

• Sviđa mi se ova kuhinja. = I like this kitchen.

Voleti is usually stronger or broader:

• Volela bih da imam ovakvu kuhinju. = I’d love to have a kitchen like this.
• Volim kafu. = I like/love coffee.
• Volim da kuvam. = I like cooking.

So in this sentence, sviđati se fits the idea of giving an opinion about how the kitchen seems to you.

Yes. Ti is the informal singular form, used with friends, family, children, or people you are on familiar terms with.

For polite or plural you, use vam:

• Da li vam se sviđa ova kuhinja?

This can mean either:

• Do you like this kitchen? said politely to one person
• Do you all like this kitchen? said to more than one person

So the difference is:

• ti = informal singular
• vam = formal singular or plural

You should memorize the verb as sviđati se.

That is the infinitive / dictionary form. The form in the sentence, sviđa, is the present tense, third person singular.

A few useful forms are:

• sviđati se = to be pleasing, to appeal, to be liked
• sviđa mi se = I like it
• sviđa ti se = you like it
• sviđaju mi se = I like them

It is a good idea to learn this verb as a pattern rather than as a single word, because the dative pronoun and se are so important to how it works.