Koji ti se sviđa, ovaj ili onaj?

you

Breakdown of Koji ti se sviđa, ovaj ili onaj?

• ovaj: this
• sviđati se: to like
• ili: or

Questions & Answers about Koji ti se sviđa, ovaj ili onaj?

Why is the sentence Koji ti se sviđa instead of something with voliš?

In Serbian, sviđati se is a very common way to say to be pleasing to someone, which is how Serbian usually expresses to like.

So:

• Sviđa mi se = I like it
  Literally: It is pleasing to me

That is why the person who likes something is not the grammatical subject in Serbian. The thing being liked is the subject.

By contrast, voleti usually means to love or to like very much, and it is often stronger.

• Koji ti se sviđa? = Which one do you like?
• Koji voliš? can be possible in some contexts, but it sounds different and often stronger or less neutral.

For everyday choosing between items, sviđati se is the most natural choice.

What does ti mean here, and why is it not te?

Ti here means to you, not you as a direct object.

That is because sviđati se takes the person in the dative case:

• meni se sviđa = I like it
• tebi se sviđa = you like it
• njemu se sviđa = he likes it

The short dative form of tebi is ti.

So:

• Koji ti se sviđa? = Which one is pleasing to you?

Te would be accusative, and that is not what this verb needs.

What exactly does se do in sviđa se?