Clauses of comparison
In short
| Opener | + | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| kao što | clause | as, just as (nije tako velik kao što sam mislio) |
| nego što | clause after a comparative | than (veći nego što sam mislio) |
| kao da | clause, ordinary tense | as if (kao da je, kao da će) |
| kao | noun phrase | like (kao mali Beč) |
od only before a noun, never before a clause. No bi after kao da.
B1 · Lesson 43 · Poredbene rečenice: kao što, nego što, kao da
The full explanation, from the lesson that teaches this rule
In A2 you compared two things: Beograd je veći od Novog Sada, Novi Sad je kao mali Beč. But very often what you compare is not a thing but a whole situation — what you expected, what a place was like before, what people say. "Belgrade is bigger than I thought." "The town has changed, just as you said." "The streets are empty, as if everyone had gone away." The second half of each of these has its own verb: it is a clause. Serbian opens such clauses with three fixed openers.
| Opener | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| kao što + clause | as, just as (the same way, to the same degree) | Sve je bilo kao što smo zamišljali. Everything was as we had imagined. |
| nego što + clause | than (after a comparative) | Beograd je veći nego što sam mislio. Belgrade is bigger than I thought. |
| kao da + clause | as if, as though (it only seems so) | Ovaj stari grad izgleda kao da je iz bajke. This old town looks as if it came out of a fairy tale. |
kao što: as, just as
kao što says that two situations match. It often opens a sentence to point at something both speakers know: Kao što vidite, centar grada je pun turista (As you can see, the city centre is full of tourists). After tako it compares degree: Grad nije tako velik kao što sam mislio (The town isn't as big as I thought). The što here does not mean "what" — it simply links kao to a clause.
nego što: than, before a clause
After a comparative (veći, skuplji, bolje, duže) you already know two ways to name the second thing: od + genitive and nego + the same case. Both of these compare nouns. When the second term is a whole clause with its own verb, only nego što works.
| What follows the comparative | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a noun | od + genitive | Beč je čistiji od Beograda. |
| a noun | nego + same case | Beč je čistiji nego Beograd. |
| a clause (own verb) | nego što | Beč je čistiji nego što sam očekivala. |
Never put od in front of a clause. As soon as a verb follows, switch to nego što: skuplji nego što su bili, never skuplji od što su bili.
kao da: as if
kao da compares with something that is not really the case — it only looks or feels that way: Na ulicama nema nikoga, kao da je ceo grad otišao na more (There's nobody in the streets, as if the whole city had gone to the seaside). It is very common after izgledati (to look, seem) and osećati se (to feel).
The verb after kao da is an ordinary tense, chosen by time, exactly as if the clause stood alone:
- present for something happening at the same time: Govoriš srpski kao da živiš ovde. (as if you lived here)
- past for something earlier: Priča o Parizu kao da je tamo živela. (as if she had lived there)
- future for something about to happen: Izgleda kao da će opet padati kiša. (It looks as if it's going to rain again.)
English says "as if he were", "as if she had lived" — but Serbian does not use the conditional here. Never put bi after kao da: say kao da je, kao da si, kao da će, just as you would in a plain statement.
kao or kao da?
Look at what follows. Before a noun phrase you use plain kao (the A2 rule: the noun keeps the case of what it is compared to). Before a clause with its own verb you need kao da.
| kao + noun phrase | kao da + clause |
|---|---|
| Osećam se kao kod kuće. I feel at home (like at home). | Osećam se kao da sam kod kuće. I feel as if I were at home. |
| Ova ulica izgleda kao ulica u Parizu. This street looks like a street in Paris. | Ova ulica izgleda kao da je u Parizu. This street looks as if it were in Paris. |
| Novi Sad je kao mali Beč. Novi Sad is like a little Vienna. | — |
Quick test: is there a verb (je, sam, će, živiš...) right after the comparison? Then it is kao da (or kao što if the two situations really match). No verb, just a noun? Plain kao.
Check what you read
3 of the 14 questions this lesson asks in the app. Type the form or pick the answer.
Novi Sad je lepši ___ što sam mislila.
Which sentence is correct?
Put je trajao duže ___ smo planirali.
Examples from the course
The marked word is where the rule applies. Press play to hear the sentence.
Sve je bilo kao što smo zamišljali.
Everything was as we had imagined.
Beograd je veći nego što sam mislio.
Belgrade is bigger than I thought (man speaking).
Beč je čistiji nego što sam očekivala.
Vienna is cleaner than I expected (woman speaking).
Grad nije tako velik kao što sam mislio.
The town isn't as big as I thought (man speaking).
Da li je Slovenija razvijenija nego što si mislio?
Is Slovenia more developed than you thought? (to a man)
Kao što vidite, istorijski centar grada je pun turista.
As you can see, the historic city centre is full of tourists.
Put do obale je trajao duže nego što smo planirali.
The trip to the coast took longer than we had planned.
Beograd je postao prava metropola, baš kao što je gradonačelnik obećao.
Belgrade has become a real metropolis, just as the mayor promised.
Kao što znaš, Srbija nema more, ali ima mnogo reka i planina.
As you know, Serbia has no sea, but it has lots of rivers and mountains.
Zagađenje u industrijskom delu grada je gore nego što možete da zamislite.
The pollution in the industrial part of the city is worse than you can imagine.
Sentences in the course that use this rule: 20
Try it yourself
Translate a sentence that uses this rule. The check marks the word that went wrong and names the rule behind it, as in the app.
Sentences
Write it in Serbian
Everything was as we had imagined.
we: a group including a man