Breakdown of To moja bratowa, której dom bardzo mi się podoba.
to
this
dom
house
bardzo
very
mój
my
podobać się
to appeal / to like (aesthetically, first impressions)
mi
to me
który
which, who (relative)
bratowa
the sister-in-law
Questions & Answers about To moja bratowa, której dom bardzo mi się podoba.
Why does the sentence use której to mean 'whose'?
In Polish, 'whose' is expressed by using the Genitive case of the relative pronoun który. Because it refers back to bratowa (sister-in-law), which is a feminine noun, we use the feminine Genitive form której.
Does której match the gender of the sister-in-law (bratowa) or the house (dom)?
It matches bratowa. When using który in the Genitive to mean 'whose', it always takes the gender and number of the owner (the person or thing you are referring back to), not the thing being owned. If you were talking about a brother, you would use the masculine Genitive and say którego dom (whose house).
Why is the verb podoba in the 'he/she/it' form if the English translation says 'I like'?
The Polish verb podobać się literally means 'to be pleasing to'. So the phrase dom bardzo mi się podoba actually means 'the house is very pleasing to me'. The house (dom) is the grammatical subject doing the action, which is why the verb is in the third-person singular form podoba.
Why are the pronouns mi and się placed before the verb rather than after it?
Short pronouns like mi and się usually avoid the very end of a sentence. They tend to cluster together earlier in the clause. Putting them before the verb as bardzo mi się podoba is the most natural word order here, whereas ending the sentence with się would sound awkward.
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