Breakdown of Što ima više kiše, to je urod obilniji.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
imati
to have
više
more
kiša
rain
što
the (correlative: the more...)
to
the (correlative: ...the more)
urod
yield
obilan
abundant
Questions & Answers about Što ima više kiše, to je urod obilniji.
Why do we use što and to instead of just repeating the word for "more"?
In English, we say "The more..., the more...". In Croatian, this structure is built using što and to combined with comparative words. You can think of it literally as "What there is more rain, that the yield is more abundant."
Why is the verb ima used to mean "there is" here?
The verb imati (to have) is frequently used impersonally in Croatian to mean "there is" or "there are". So, ima više kiše literally translates to "it has more rain," but smoothly translates to "there is more rain."
Why is the word for rain kiše instead of kiša?
Because it comes after the quantity word više (more). In Croatian, words expressing quantity (like malo, puno, or više) must be followed by the genitive case. Since kiša is a feminine noun, its genitive singular ending is -e.
Why does je come right after to and before the subject urod?
je is an enclitic (a short, unstressed word), which means it has strict placement rules and naturally wants to sit in the second position of its clause. The second clause starts with to, so je drops directly into that second position before the subject urod.
How does the adjective obilniji agree with the rest of the sentence?
It is the comparative form of the adjective obilan (abundant). Because it is describing the noun urod (yield or harvest), which is masculine and in the nominative case, obilniji takes the masculine nominative form to match it.
Learn Što ima više kiše, to je urod obilniji and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free