Breakdown of Njihov odnos je kompliciraniji nego nekada.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
njihov
their
odnos
relationship / attitude
nego
than
nekada
formerly
kompliciran
complicated
Questions & Answers about Njihov odnos je kompliciraniji nego nekada.
Why do we use nego here instead of od?
You have learned that od + genitive is used to say 'than' (like veći od tebe - bigger than you). However, od only works with nouns and pronouns. Here, we are comparing the relationship now to how it was in the past using the adverb nekada (before). When comparing with adverbs, verbs, or full phrases, you must use nego.
I thought nekada meant 'sometimes'. Why does it mean 'before' here?
Nekada is a versatile adverb. While it often means 'sometimes', in contexts dealing with time comparison or nostalgia, it means 'once', 'formerly', or 'in the past'. So nego nekada means 'than in the past' or 'than before'.
How do we form the comparative word kompliciraniji?
The base adjective is kompliciran (complicated). For most longer adjectives, you form the comparative by adding -iji for masculine, -ija for feminine, and -ije for neuter nouns. Since odnos (relationship) is a masculine noun, we use the masculine form kompliciraniji.
If nego requires a matching case, what case is nekada in?
It doesn't have a case because nekada is an adverb, and adverbs do not change form. That is one of the benefits of the nego structure: while it usually makes you match the case of the noun before it, if you are comparing with an adverb, you just drop the adverb right in without calculating any noun cases!
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