Breakdown of Koliko ulažemo, toliko će iznositi naša dobit.
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
koliko
how much, how many
naš
our
toliko
so much, so many
ulagati
to invest (imperfective)
iznositi
to amount to
dobit
profit
Questions & Answers about Koliko ulažemo, toliko će iznositi naša dobit.
How does the koliko ..., toliko ... structure work in this sentence?
This is a correlative proportional clause. Koliko introduces the condition or amount (meaning 'however much' or 'as much as'), and toliko balances it in the main clause (meaning 'that much'). They work as a pair to show that the second action (the profit) depends proportionally on the first (the investment).
Why is ulažemo in the present tense if the profit will happen in the future?
Just like in English, Croatian often uses the present tense in the dependent clause (the koliko part) to state a general condition, while the result in the main clause (the toliko part) uses the future tense (će iznositi) because that outcome hasn't happened yet.
Why is the future auxiliary će placed right after toliko instead of next to the verb?
The word će is an enclitic, which is an unstressed word that must take the second position in its clause. Since the main clause starts with toliko, the enclitic će must immediately follow it, separating it from the main verb iznositi.
The word dobit ends in a consonant. Why does it take the feminine adjective naša?
Dobit (profit) is a Croatian noun that ends in a consonant but belongs to the feminine i-declension group, just like noć (night) or stvar (thing). Because the noun is feminine, the possessive pronoun describing it must also be feminine, which is why we use naša instead of naš.
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