Da li vam se sviđa ova večera?

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

So:

Da li vam se sviđa ova večera?
means Do you like this dinner?

It does not have a neat one-word English equivalent. Its job is simply to turn the sentence into a question.

Because the verb pattern is not the same as English like.

In Serbian, sviđati se works more like to be pleasing to. So the person who experiences the liking goes in the dative case.

• vam = to you / to you all / to you (formal singular)
• vas would be accusative or genitive, which is not what this verb needs

So literally, the structure is closer to:

This dinner is pleasing to you.

That is why vam is correct.

It can be either:

• plural you: speaking to more than one person
• formal singular you: speaking politely to one person

So this sentence can mean:

• Do you all like this dinner?
• Do you like this dinner? said politely to one person

If you were speaking to one person informally, you would usually say:

Da li ti se sviđa ova večera?

Se is part of the verb sviđati se. You should learn it together as one unit:

sviđati se = to be pleasing / to appeal / to be liked

Here se does not mean yourself or anything like that. It is just a required part of this verb.

So it is best to memorize:

• sviđa mi se = I like it
• sviđa ti se = you like it
• sviđa vam se = you like it

If you remove se, the sentence is no longer correct in this meaning.

Because the verb agrees with ova večera, not with vam.

In Serbian, with sviđati se, the thing being liked is the grammatical subject.

Here the subject is:

ova večera = this dinner

It is:

• singular
• feminine
• nominative

So the verb is 3rd person singular:

sviđa

It is not agreeing with you, because vam is in the dative and is not the subject.

Because ova večera is in the nominative case, and that is what this verb construction requires for the thing being liked.

Compare:

• Sviđa mi se ova večera. = I like this dinner.
• Volim ovu večeru. = I like this dinner.

In the first sentence, the dinner is the subject, so it stays in the nominative:

• ova večera

In the second sentence, with voleti, the dinner is a direct object, so it goes into the accusative:

• ovu večeru

This is one of the most important differences between sviđati se and voleti.

Ova means this, and it must agree with večera in gender, number, and case.

Since večera is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

the demonstrative must also be feminine singular nominative:

• ova večera = this dinner

So ova is not random; it matches the noun grammatically.

The form you usually want to learn is:

sviđati se

That is the infinitive-style dictionary form meaning to be liked / to appeal.

In this sentence:

• sviđa = present tense, 3rd person singular
• full verb expression = sviđa se

So when you learn vocabulary, learn it as:

sviđati se

not just sviđati, because the se belongs to the verb.

Both can often be translated as to like, but they are not used in exactly the same way.

sviđati se

• literally works like to be pleasing to
• takes the experiencer in the dative
• often feels like appeal to, seem nice, be enjoyable

voleti

• works more like a normal transitive verb
• takes a direct object in the accusative
• can mean like, love, or be fond of, depending on context

Compare:

• Sviđa vam se ova večera?
• Volite ovu večeru?

Both can mean Do you like this dinner?, but the first follows the common appeal to you structure, while the second is more direct.

Yes, Serbian word order is fairly flexible, but some versions are more natural than others.

The given sentence:

Da li vam se sviđa ova večera?

is a very normal, neutral way to say it.

You may also see:

Sviđa li vam se ova večera?

This is also correct, but it sounds more formal or literary.

Because vam and se are clitics, they usually stay near the beginning of the sentence and in a fairly fixed order. So you should treat vam se as a common little cluster here.

A simple answer would be:

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

If you want to repeat the noun:

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

Notice that when you answer, you switch from vam to mi, because now you are talking about yourself:

• vam = to you
• mi = to me

Usually večera means the evening meal, so depending on the variety of English, it may be translated as dinner or supper.

So the Serbian word itself is straightforward, but the best English translation can depend on the speaker’s dialect and habits.