Comparative Clauses with as wat and soos wat

There are two ways to name the standard you are comparing against. You can compare against a noun phrase — langer as ek, mooi soos altyd — in which case Afrikaans deletes the repeated verb; that ellipsis is the subject of comparison clauses and ellipsis. Or you can compare against a whole proposition — something thought, said, expected, or known — and then Afrikaans does the opposite: it builds a full finite comparison clause and keeps the verb visible, hung onto the comparison by wat. This page is about that second construction: the clausal comparatives as wat ("than [what]") and soos wat ("as [what]"). The crucial fact is that wat is obligatory the moment the standard is a clause — and that obligation is exactly what English speakers miss, because English uses a bare "than" / "as" in both cases.

as wat: a finite clause as the standard

After a comparative (meer, minder, groter, duurder, slimmer, ...), when the thing you are comparing against has its own subject and finite verb, you introduce it with as wat and the clause stays complete — verb at the end, in normal subordinate-clause order.

The standard here is not a noun phrase but the whole thought ek gedink het ("I thought"). That thought keeps its verb — gedink het is not deleted — and wat is what licenses it as a clause. Drop the wat and the sentence is broken: a finite clause cannot hang directly off as. This is the structural split the page exists to isolate: bare as for a phrasal standard, as wat for a clausal one.

In each case the embedded verb survives — hy lyk, die saal kon hou — because the standard is a full proposition, not a thing. Compare the phrasal version, where the standard is just a noun phrase and the verb deletes (no wat):

As sy broer is phrasal — the deleted clause would be as wat sy broer is — so no wat. As wat hy lyk is clausal — a real verb, kept — so wat appears. That is the whole distinction, and it never bends.

soos wat: a finite clause of manner or identity

Where as wat handles unequal comparison ("than"), soos wat handles manner, way, and likeness ("as / the way [that]"). When the manner you are comparing against is itself a clause — as you know, as I said, the way the recipe describes — you use soos wat and keep the verb. Using bare as here is a classic transfer error from English "as", because Afrikaans as means "than / if / when", never the equative "as".

The standard is the clause ek gesê het / jy weet — full verb, introduced by soos wat. Note in the second example that when the soos wat clause is fronted, the main clause then inverts (is die kantoor), exactly as any fronted subordinate clause forces V2 in what follows. As with as, the phrasal counterpart drops the verb and the wat:

Soos 'n engel is a phrase (a noun phrase standard), so no wat and no verb. Soos wat ek gesê het is a clause, so wat and a kept verb. One word, two structures, exactly parallel to as / as wat.

Why the verb is kept here but deleted there

It is worth being precise about why the clausal comparatives keep their verb while phrasal comparison deletes it, because that is the insight that makes the choice automatic. In langer as ek, the deleted clause (as wat ek [is]) would merely repeat the main verb — is in both halves — so it is gapped as redundant. But in duurder as wat ek gedink het, the embedded clause does not repeat the main verb (is); it introduces a wholly new predicate (gedink het, "thought"). There is nothing redundant to delete, so the clause must surface in full, and wat is the relativiser that lets it attach. In other words:

• Phrasal standard → the comparison clause would only echo the matrix verb → it is gapped → bare as / soos.
• Clausal standard → the comparison contains a new verb that cannot be recovered from the matrix → it must appear → as wat / soos wat.

This is why as wat clusters so heavily around verbs of thinking, saying, expecting and appearing — dink, sê, verwag, hoop, lyk, glo — because those introduce a fresh proposition that the matrix clause does not already contain. The ellipsis side of this is developed on comparison clauses and ellipsis; this page is the mirror image — the cases where nothing can be deleted.

Correlative pairs: proportional and equative frames

Afrikaans also has fixed correlative comparison frames — two linked parts that work as a pair. The proportional "the more ... the more ..." uses hoe ... hoe ... (or hoe ... des te ...), where each part is a clause and the comparatives sit at the front of their halves.

Two things to notice. First, this is a true correlative: the first hoe-clause is a fronted subordinate clause, so the second half inverts (speel ek, raak hy) under V2. Second, both halves contain full finite verbs — this is clausal comparison, like as wat, not phrasal. The equative correlative so ... soos ("as ... as") similarly frames a comparison of equality, and extends to so ... soos wat when its standard is a clause:

The deeper proportional and equative machinery — including des te and result-correlatives — is covered on proportional and equative comparison and comparative correlatives and result clauses; the takeaway here is that the correlative frames, like as wat / soos wat, are clausal: each limb keeps a finite verb.

A reminder on dan and the bare equative

Two errors recur and both come from neighbouring languages or from English. First, "than" in Afrikaans is always as, never dan (which means only "then") — the contrast is laid out on as vs dan. Second, the equative "as ... as" is so ... soos, never so ... as and never as ... as. Keep these clear and the clausal comparatives fall into place.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• When the standard of comparison is a full finite clause, Afrikaans uses as wat ("than what") and soos wat ("as what") and keeps the embedded verb — unlike phrasal comparison, which deletes it (see comparison clauses and ellipsis).
• wat is obligatory with a clausal standard: a finite clause cannot hang directly off as or soos. duurder as wat ek gedink het, soos wat jy weet.
• The verb is kept precisely because a clausal standard introduces a new predicate (dink, sê, verwag, lyk) that the matrix clause does not already contain — so there is nothing to delete.
• The equative is so ... soos (→ so ... soos wat for a clause), never so ... as; and "than" is always as, never dan (see as vs dan).
• Correlative frames hoe ... hoe ... and so ... soos are clausal too — each limb keeps a finite verb, and a fronted hoe-clause inverts the second half; deeper coverage on proportional and equative comparison.