Breakdown of Nie podoba mi się nowy design Google'a.
nie
no / not
nowy
new
podobać się
to appeal / to like (aesthetically, first impressions)
mi
to me
Google
Google
design
the design
Questions & Answers about Nie podoba mi się nowy design Google'a.
Why does Google'a have an apostrophe before the -a ending?
In Polish, when a foreign proper noun ends in a silent vowel (like the 'e' in Google), we must use an apostrophe before adding the Polish case ending. Here, we need the Genitive case (the design of Google), so we add 'a.
How exactly do I pronounce Google'a? Do I read the 'e' and the 'a'?
No, you do not pronounce the 'e'. The apostrophe tells you that the original 'e' is silent. You attach the Polish -a ending directly to the final consonant sound, so it is pronounced essentially as gugla.
Is design a Polish word now, and how does it decline?
Yes, it is a common loanword from English. You will often see it in its original English spelling, though the phonetic spelling dizajn is also fully accepted. In this sentence, it is in the Nominative case. If you needed to decline it, it acts like a standard masculine inanimate noun (for example, the Genitive is designu).
Since the sentence is negated (nie podoba), why isn't nowy design in the Genitive case (nowego designu)?
The rule where negation changes a noun to the Genitive case only applies to direct objects (which are normally Accusative). With the verb podobać się (to appeal to), the thing you like is actually the grammatical subject (Nominative). Because nowy design is the subject, the negation does not change its case.
Why use the short form mi instead of mnie?
Mi is the unstressed Dative form of ja (I). We use it in the middle of sentences when we are just stating a fact without special emphasis. You would use the long form mnie if it were at the very beginning of the sentence or if you wanted to emphasize a contrast (meaning I don't like it, but someone else does).
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