B1 — intermediateAdjectives

Syntax of comparison

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

The syntax of comparison: od, nego, kao and everything after “than”

You can already build the comparative itself: viši (taller, higher), bolji (better), mlađi (younger). The lesson on the comparative gave you the suffixes and the four irregular forms from another root: bolji, gori, veći, manji. But “taller” is only half a sentence. The other half begins with “than”: taller than whom, better than what, younger by how much. This lesson covers everything that comes after the comparative.

English gets by with a single word, than. Serbian has two: od with the genitive and nego with the same case as the word compared. In simple sentences either will do; elsewhere only nego works. Around them sit kao for comparisons of equality, za with the accusative for the size of the difference (“taller by five centimetres”), sve bolje (“better and better”) and the pair što… to… (“the more…, the more…”).

Two ways to say “than”: od and nego

Start with the simple case: one person or thing compared with another. Then Serbian usually needs no word for “than”: it uses the preposition od (literally “from”) and puts the second term in the genitive, the case of “of” and “from”:

Examples

Phrase	Translation	What goes into the genitive
viši od brata	taller than his brother	brat → brata
stariji od mene	older than me	ja → mene
mlađi od sestre	younger than his sister	sestra → sestre
slađi od meda	sweeter than honey	med → meda

Here mlađi (younger) and slađi (sweeter) carry the single letter đ (like the d in British duty): the d of the stem has fused with the j of the suffix, as the lesson on the comparative showed. English gives a hint of the pattern: “older than me”, with the object form. Serbian goes further, with a preposition and a real case form: od mene, word for word “from me”, and viši od brata, “taller from brother”.

The second way, nego, is a plain “than”: viši nego brat. Here both are correct: viši od brata = viši nego brat, stariji od mene = stariji nego ja (after nego, the same nominative as the subject). With a single noun or pronoun, everyday speech more often uses od: bolji od svih (better than anyone). With a number, too, od is usual: više od sto ljudi (more than a hundred people), manje od pet minuta (less than five minutes).

Keep the look-alikes apart: “taller than him” is viši od njega (or viši nego on); njega is “him”, nego is “than”. The usual order is the comparative first, then the “than” phrase, as in English. Ana je pametnija od Marka. Ana is smarter than Marko. When you choose between two, the word is između (between). Biraj između ova dva. Choose between these two.

Deeper etymology

nego: a “than” built from “not”

nego is a conjunction, a linking word like English and, but, than, put together from the negation ne “not” and an old particle (Proto-Slavic *-go); literally something like “not-that”. This explains its second meaning, which has nothing to do with comparison: after a negative, nego means “but rather”. Nije crno, nego belo. It isn't black, it's white. Spanish packs the same idea into sino, built from si “if” and no “not”: no es negro, sino blanco. English than has its own story: it began as the same word as then, and the spellings parted only a few centuries ago.

One practical warning. In comparisons you will keep meeting a look-alike of nego: njega, the full form of “him” (od njega, from him). nego is a conjunction that means “than” or “but rather”; njega is a pronoun, and after od it simply stands in the genitive like any noun. So “taller than him” is viši od njega: od plus the genitive njega, with no nego anywhere in it.

When only nego will do

od needs a genitive, and only a noun or a pronoun has one: od brata, od mene, od mog brata (than my brother). An adverb, a phrase with a preposition, a verb or a clause has none, so only nego is left:

Cheat sheet

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Syntax of comparison: od, nego, kao, za

“Than” splits in two: od + genitive and nego + the same case.

od + genitive: a person or thing

Examples

Phrase	Translation	Genitive
viši od brata	taller than his brother	brat → brata
stariji od mene	older than me	ja → mene
mlađi od sestre	younger than his sister	sestra → sestre
slađi od meda	sweeter than honey	med → meda

Both work: viši od brata = viši nego brat; od is more usual (bolji od svih), also with numbers (više od sto ljudi). Ana je pametnija od Marka. Ana is smarter than Marko. “Taller than him” = viši od njega. Biraj između ova dva. Choose between these two.

nego: where od fails

Examples

After “than”	Example	Translation
adverb	Danas je toplije nego juče.	it’s warmer today than yesterday
preposition	Ovde je jeftinije nego u Beogradu.	it’s cheaper here than in Belgrade
verb	Lakše je reći nego uraditi.	easier said than done
clause	Lepše je nego što misliš.	it's more beautiful than you think
saying	Bolje išta nego ništa.	something is better than nothing

After nego: the same case as the word compared. Više volim čaj nego kafu (both accusative); Volim ga više nego tebe “than (I love) you”, nego ti “than you do”. Before a clause: nego što. Radije šetam nego što vozim. I'd rather walk than drive.

kao: equality

Examples

Phrase	Translation
visok kao ja, isto tako lep kao brat	as tall as me, just as handsome as his brother
jak kao medved, bela kao sneg	as strong as a bear, as white as snow
radi kao mrav, ćuti kao riba	works like an ant, keeps as quiet as a fish
Nije visok kao ti.	he isn't as tall as you
Izgleda kao da će kiša.	it looks like rain (kao da = as if)

After kao, the same case: visok kao ja (nominative), Volim te kao brata (accusative). “How” is kako.

za + accusative: by how much

Examples

Phrase	Translation
viši za pet santimetara	taller by five centimetres
stariji za dve godine	two years older
skuplji za sto dinara	a hundred dinars dearer
mlađi za mesec dana	a month younger

No number: viši za glavu. After 2–4 the “small plural” (za dve godine), after pet, sto the genitive plural. Marko je viši od mene za pet santimetara. Marko is five centimetres taller than me.

In motion: sve and što… to…

Examples

Phrase	Translation
sve bolje, sve teže, sve više i više	better and better, harder and harder, more and more
Dani su sve kraći.	the days are getting shorter
Što više radiš, to više znaš.	the more you work, the more you know
Što pre, to bolje.	the sooner, the better

sve bolji “better and better” (growth), još bolji “even better” (one step up).