Podoba

Podoba is a Polish term that represents the present tense, third-person singular form of the verb podobać się, meaning to please or to be pleasing. In contemporary Polish, podoba is used in constructions where the thing that pleases is the grammatical subject, while the person who experiences the pleasure is expressed in the dative case. For example, Podoba mi się ten obraz means that this painting pleases me or that I like this painting. Podoba mu się ta piosenka translates as that song pleases him.

The verb podobać się is imperfective, and its forms adapt to number and gender like other Polish verbs. With a singular subject, the form is podoba (as in ten obraz). With plural subjects, the form changes to podobają się (for example, Te filmy podobają mi się). The past tense uses podobało mi się (neuter), podobał mi się (masculine), or podobała mi się (feminine), with appropriate endings for plural subjects.

Grammatical construction centers on the thing that pleases as the subject and the experiencer in the dative; the reflexive particle się is used as part of the infinitive and related forms. The overall meaning is to express aesthetic approval, liking, or general appeal of something.

Etymologically, podobać się derives from the root podoba- with standard Polish derivational patterns and the reflexive construction. Similar expressions exist in other Slavic languages, such as Russian ponravitsya, which share the core idea of indicating that something is pleasing to someone.