Breakdown of Te kwiaty bardzo mi się podobają.
ten
this (m)
bardzo
very
podobać się
to appeal / to like (aesthetically, first impressions)
mi
to me
kwiat
flower (m)
Questions & Answers about Te kwiaty bardzo mi się podobają.
Why do we use Te kwiaty instead of Ci kwiaty?
In Polish, plural nouns are split into two groups: virile (groups including at least one man) and non-virile (everything else, including women, animals, and objects). Since kwiat (flower) is an object, its plural kwiaty belongs to the non-virile group. This means it takes the non-virile plural word for these, which is te. If we were talking about a group of men, we would use ci.
How do we form the plural kwiaty from kwiat?
Kwiat is a masculine inanimate noun (an object). To make these nouns plural in the nominative case, we usually add -y or -i to the end. For kwiat, we add -y to get kwiaty.
If the English translation is "I like", why is the verb podobają in the "they" form?
The Polish verb podobać się works backward compared to the English verb "to like". It literally means "to be appealing to". The Polish sentence is actually structured as: These flowers (Te kwiaty) are very appealing (bardzo się podobają) to me (mi). Because the flowers are the ones doing the action of being appealing, the verb must be in the plural "they" form.
What is the word mi doing here?
mi means "to me". It is the short dative case form of ja (I). We use it with podobać się to show exactly who the flowers are appealing to. You will almost always use this short form mi in the middle of a sentence instead of the long form mnie, unless you are strongly emphasizing that they appeal to ME and not someone else.
Why is the word się floating in the middle of the sentence?
The word się is a required part of the dictionary verb podobać się (to appeal). In Polish, short pronoun words like mi and się are often grouped together in the middle of a sentence, which is why you see mi się right next to each other after the adverb bardzo.
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