Breakdown of Riba je dobra, osim što je malo sirova.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
dobar
good
malo
a little
riba
fish
Questions & Answers about Riba je dobra, osim što je malo sirova.
Why do we need što here? Could I just say osim je malo sirova?
You need što because it connects the first half of the sentence to a full clause (a mini-sentence with its own verb, je). The phrase osim što means "except that." If you used osim by itself, it would act as a preposition meaning "except" and would have to be followed by a noun or pronoun in the genitive case, not a verb.
Why is the enclitic je placed right after što instead of later in the clause?
The verb je is an enclitic, which is a small, unstressed word that must take the second position in its clause. In dependent clauses introduced by conjunctions like što, the clitic naturally attaches right after that conjunction. Saying osim što malo je sirova would violate this strict word order rule.
Why is sirova in the feminine form when there is no noun in the second part of the sentence?
Even though the subject is dropped after the comma, the hidden pronoun is ona (it/she), referring back to riba (fish) from the first clause. The adjective sirova (raw) must stay in the nominative feminine singular form to agree with the noun it describes across the sentence.
Why does the sentence use malo instead of mala to agree with the feminine noun riba?