Breakdown of Guska je malo veća od patke.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
velik
big
malo
a little
od
than (in comparison)
patka
duck
guska
goose
Questions & Answers about Guska je malo veća od patke.
Wait, how do we get veća from the Croatian word for "big"?
The adjective velik (big) has an irregular comparative form. The root changes completely to veći (masculine), veća (feminine), or veće (neuter). Since guska is feminine, we use veća.
Why is the preposition od used here? Doesn't that usually mean "from"?
Yes, od often means "from", but it is also the most common way to express "than" when comparing two things directly. You simply use the comparative adjective followed by od and the genitive case.
Why does the sentence use patke instead of patka?
The preposition od always requires the noun that follows it to take the genitive case. The dictionary form is patka (a regular feminine noun ending in -a), so its genitive singular form takes an -e ending, becoming patke.
If I wanted to use nego for "than", how would this sentence change?
If you use nego (than) instead of od, the second noun stays in the same case as the first one. So you would say: Guska je malo veća nego patka. However, using od plus the genitive case is generally preferred and sounds more natural for simple direct comparisons like this.
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