I'm writing about a group of people disliking the act of choir.

I guess that my question generally would be talking about a certain thing from
someone else's perspective; I think it could be [person] は [thing] が好きじゃいでした。
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How should I express "somebody else is good at/bad at/dislikes/likes XYZ"?
> How should I express “somebody else is good at/bad at/dislikes/likes XYZ”?

As in, for example, "cats generally don't like getting wet"? Literally
trasnlated, it would go something like: ふつう、猫は濡れることを好まない。

However, 苦手（にがて）may be the word you are looking for. The same can be said as:

猫は、ふつう泳ぐのが苦手だ。 Generallys speaking, cats don't swin well.

as an aside(since you mentioned "like"), 得意（とくい）is the opposite of 苦手 and they
are frequently used together as bullet items.

犬は、ふつう泳ぐのが得意だ。 Generally speaking, dogs swim well.

得意科目は、算数です。 苦手科目は、英語です。

得意・苦手 are often used to describe how someone posess or lacks a particular
skill set. In a conversation among violinists, one might say pizzicato is
his/her 得意 or 苦手。

## バイオリンは一応弾けますが、ピチカートは苦手です。 I play the violin but I'm not good at pizzicato.

嫌い（きらい） is also a candidate for your original question. Compared to 苦手、it
implies dislike. にんじんは嫌い、注射は嫌い、etc. (I don't like carrots, I don't like shots)

猫は、濡れるのを嫌う。 猫は、濡れるのが嫌いだ。 Cants hate getting wet.

Here is a good disambiguation between 嫌い and 苦手。 I think
[this](https://okurukotoba.tokyo/archives/1097) will help you.
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As you can see here,
<http://www.coelang.tufs.ac.jp/mt/ja/gmod/contents/explanation/036.html>

negative form of ～です is ～ **ではありません**  
negative form of ～でした is ～ **ではありません** でした

In other words,

past tense form of ～です is ～ **でした**  
past tense form of ～ではありません is ～ではありません **でした**

Alternatively, there are forms:

negative form of です is ～ではないです  
negative form of でした is ～ではなかったです (not ではないでした)

So, if you want to say "[person] _did_ not like [things]" in the polite form
(丁寧体):

「[person]は[thing]が好きではありませんでした。」  
「[person]は[thing]が好きじゃありませんでした。」(a bit more casual)  
「[person]は[thing]が好きじゃなかったです。」(less common in formal situation)
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