"I like small animals, for example cats."

Translation: Lubię małe zwierzęta, na przykład koty.

[Court211039]

Having trouble with the distinction between "Lubię" and "Podoba mi się". For example, here I wrote "Podoba mi się małe zwierzęta, na przykład koty" and this response was marked as wrong. Hovering over "I like" also produced the translation "Podoba mi się", exacerbating my confusion.

[alik1989]

https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/35422745

https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/27726068

It's a difficult question. When referring to animals, the verb lubić is used, for the most part. I was trying to find a text sample where podobać się is used in this context and the result was, well, horrifying.

[jjoeking]

I translated this as „Podobają się małe zwierzęta, na przykład koty”, recognising that the subject is plural. Not sure why this is wrong…

[Jellei]

You're almost right, but the verb "podobać się" needs a pronoun in Dative, as it works kinda like "small animals are (aesthetically) pleasing (to whom?)". So it needs to be "Podobają mi się małe zwierzęta".

Oh, you actually wrote that, I can now see your report (thanks for reporting); you only missed it in the comment. Usually it's the other way round, users write something correctly in the comment but make some typos in the version they report :D

Anyway, ok, let's add it.

[jjoeking]

Thanks.