Breakdown of Zlatar ga je procijenio brže nego što smo očekivali.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
on
he
brz
fast
nego
than
očekivati
to expect
što
that (subordinating conjunction)
procijeniti
to assess, to estimate
zlatar
jeweler
Questions & Answers about Zlatar ga je procijenio brže nego što smo očekivali.
Why do we use nego što here instead of just nego or nego da?
We use nego što because we are comparing the main action to another complete clause with a conjugated verb (smo očekivali), and that second clause represents a factual event. If we were comparing two nouns, we would use just nego. We do not use nego da here because our expectation is a real past event, not a hypothetical or alternative action.
The word order here is ga je. Doesn't the auxiliary verb usually come before the pronoun?
Yes, generally verbal enclitics (like sam, smo, su) come before pronoun enclitics. However, the 3rd-person singular auxiliary je is the big exception! It always goes to the very end of the enclitic chain, which is why the accusative pronoun ga comes first here.
Is the verb procijeniti (to evaluate) related to the word for price?
Exactly! It is built from the noun cijena (price). With the prefix pro- and verbal ending, it literally translates to putting a price on something, which perfectly matches a jeweler appraising an item.
Why is the word for faster brže here instead of brži?
Here, brže acts as a comparative adverb describing how the jeweler evaluated the item (faster). If we were describing the jeweler himself as a faster person (a masculine noun), we would use the comparative adjective brži.
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