What's the difference between 好む and 好き


What's the difference between [好]{この}む and [好]{す}き?




First of all, they belong to different word classes. 好き is a na-adjective, and
好む is a transitive verb.

  * リンゴ **が** 好き **です** 。 I like apples.
  * リンゴ **を** 好み **ます** 。 I like apples.

Semantically, they both mean "to like [something]", but 好き is **much** more
common in Japanese, and you should be using it most of the time.

In English, there is both a verb version ("I like apples") and an adjective
version ("I am fond of apples") to describe this idea, but people usually use
the former version. In Japanese, this is different, and we normally use the
na-adjective version. In Japanese, 好む is a word that is only _sometimes_ used
in stiff sentences.

