The Verb "Podobać się"
To say that you like the look of something, such as clothing or a piece of art, Polish uses the verb podobać się (to appeal to).
This structure works backwards compared to English. Instead of saying "I like the painting," you literally say "The painting appeals to me." The thing you like is the subject of the sentence. Because we are talking about singular objects in this lesson, we will use the third-person singular form: podoba.
Dative Pronouns
The person who likes the object takes the Dative case. To express who is doing the liking, use these short Dative pronouns:
- mi (to me)
- ci (to you, singular)
- mu (to him)
- jej (to her)
Because these short pronouns and the reflexive word się are weak words (clitics), they cannot start a sentence. They usually cluster together and tuck in right after the first stressed word or phrase.
Here is how you use mi and ci to talk about art (sztuka), paintings (obraz), and colors (kolor):
| I like art very much. | Bardzo podoba mi się sztuka. |
| Do you like this old painting? | Czy podoba ci się ten stary obraz? |
| I do not like this color. | Nie podoba mi się ten kolor. |
Talking About Others
To talk about what a man or woman likes, use mu and jej.
Notice how flexible Polish word order can be. As long as the short pronouns (mu, jej, się) do not start the sentence, they can follow words like bardzo (very), nie (not), or the subject itself.
Let's see this in action with some clothing vocabulary:
| She likes this new dress very much. | Ta nowa sukienka bardzo jej się podoba. |
| He likes this expensive suit very much. | Ten drogi garnitur bardzo mu się podoba. |
| She does not like this expensive shirt. | Nie podoba jej się ta droga koszula. |
