Breakdown of Kako je ledenjak bio pun opasnosti, usporili smo.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
pun
full
opasnost
danger
kako
as, since (causal)
ledenjak
glacier
usporiti
to slow down
Questions & Answers about Kako je ledenjak bio pun opasnosti, usporili smo.
Why do we use Kako here instead of jer (because)?
The word jer cannot be used to start a sentence. When you want to put the reason first to set the scene (like "since" or "as" in English), you use kako or budući da. Kako is very common in spoken and narrative Croatian for this purpose.
Does the enclitic je have to go immediately after Kako?
Yes. Kako occupies the first position in this clause, so the unstressed auxiliary verb je (an enclitic) must take the second position right after it, placing it before the subject ledenjak.
What case is opasnosti here, and why?
It is in the genitive case. The adjective pun (full) always requires the following noun to be in the genitive to express what something is full of. Because opasnost (danger) is a feminine noun that ends in a consonant, its genitive ending is -i.
Since kako usually means "how", how can we tell it means "since" here?
The sentence structure gives it away. When kako means "since", it introduces a background clause at the very beginning of the sentence, which is then followed by a comma and the main action (usporili smo). This two-part structure makes the cause-and-effect meaning clear.
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