Purpose, manner & comparative clauses
Lesson opening
This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.
Purpose, manner, comparison: kako bi, tako što, kao da, nego što
You have already worked through time, cause, condition and concession, each in its own lesson. Three more questions are left that Serbian also answers with a whole clause, a part of the sentence with its own verb: what for something is done (purpose), in what way (manner) and compared with what (comparison). Next to them stands result: what came of it all.
You know some of this already. “Purposive & result da” gave you purpose with da (Idem da kupim hleb, “I’m going to buy bread”) and with kako bi, the negative “so as not to”, and the pair tako… da, “so… that”. “Syntax of comparison” gave you od, nego and kao before a single word (“taller than his brother”, “strong as a bear”). Here the word is followed by a whole clause with a verb that carries a person ending. And here live the constructions that English builds with an -ing form or a small preposition: tako što “by doing”, a da ne “without doing”, kao da “as if”, nego što “than” before a verb.
Purpose: from everyday da to bookish kako bi
Serbian purpose has a scale of registers with four steps. You know the first two from “Purposive & result da”; the last two are new. Here is the whole scale at once, from the kitchen to the statute book:
So which do you use for English “to”, “so that”, “in order to”? In conversation, most often da + present. In an article, a formal letter or a report, kako bi or da bi, and bi changes with the person: kako bih for “I”, kako bismo for “we”, kako biste for “you” (plural or polite). These carry only purpose, “in order that”. Where English says “I want you to come”, “I’m asking you to wait”, there is no kako bi: it is Hoću da dođeš (“Advanced da-clauses”). “So as not to” is built the same way with ne: da ne + present, or kako ne bi + the participle.
Krenuli smo ranije kako ne bismo zakasnili na voz. We set off early so as not to be late for the train.
Purpose can also be a single noun: radi + genitive, “for the sake of, for”: Došla je u Beograd radi posla, “She came to Belgrade on business”. In conversation zbog is often used here too, although it usually gives a cause, “because of”: Došao sam zbog tebe, “I came for you” (“Abstract & temporal genitive prepositions”).
Three more things. First: ne bi li carries no negation in its meaning. It is a frozen formula, literally “would it not…”, and it means “in the hope that, to see whether”. Compare: Pokušavam ponovo da uspem is simply “I’m trying again to succeed”, while Pokušavam ponovo ne bi li uspelo adds “and maybe this time it will work”.
Otvorio je prozor ne bi li ušlo malo vazduha. He opened the window in the hope of letting in a little air.
Second: the official s ciljem da and u nameri da are followed by an ordinary present, with no bi at all: U nameri da pomogne, samo je pogoršao stvar, “meaning to help, he only made things worse”.
Third, the comma. A purpose clause that follows the main clause (the part that tells you what happens) takes no comma: Ustao sam ranije da bih stigao na voz, “I got up earlier to catch the train”. One brought forward is set off, much as in English (“To catch the train, I got up earlier”): Da bih stigao na voz, ustao sam ranije. Clauses with tako što, a da, umesto da, kao da, kao što and nego što behave the same way; the result bridges have a rule of their own (below). The details are in “Commas in clauses”.
Manner: tako što, time što, na taj način što
How do you name the method by which the main action was done? English reaches for by + -ing: “he saved money by giving up smoking”. Serbian has no such preposition before a verb. In conversation it builds a whole clause with tako što, literally “in such a way that”, and a verb in its ordinary tense, as in a story: tako što je prestao, “by giving up” (literally “in that he gave up”).
Serbian does have -ing-like forms (gledajući “watching”, prestavši “having given up”), but they are bookish (“Present verbal adverb”, “Past verbal adverb”); in conversation people say tako što. No comma goes before tako što, just as none goes before English “by”.
How do the three differ? tako što is the most common: it answers “by what method?” and fits anywhere. time što answers rather “by what exactly?”, “in that…”, and likes stories of credit and blame: Uvredio me je time što nije došao, “he offended me by not coming”. The third, bureaucratic one is na taj način što, “in such a manner that”: Uštedećete vreme na taj način što ćete popuniti obrazac unapred, “you will save time by filling in the form in advance”. It belongs in instructions and contracts; in conversation it sounds far too official.
Next to these stands kako, “how, as”: do it the way… Serbian often echoes it in the second half with tako, making the pair “as… so…”:
Cheat sheet
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Purpose, manner, comparison: kako bi, tako što, kao da, nego što
The verb after all these words carries a person ending; never an infinitive.
Purpose (“what for?”)
bi by person: kako bih, kako bismo. “I want you to come”: only da, Hoću da dođeš. “So as not to”: da ne, kako ne bi. With a noun: radi + Gen. (radi posla); in speech also zbog.
Manner (“in what way?”)
Verbal adverbs (gledajući, ne rekavši) are bookish; speech says tako što, a da.
Comparison: real and imagined
Before a clause, the link with što; before a single word, none: Jači je od mene, but Jači je nego što izgleda. He’s stronger than he looks.
“Like me” kao ja, “as I showed you” kao što sam ti pokazao. “Than” before an adverb: nego (toplije nego juče).