Breakdown of Što više učim hrvatski, to manje osjećam stres.
Questions & Answers about Što više učim hrvatski, to manje osjećam stres.
In this sentence, "što" is not a question word meaning "what".
It is part of a fixed comparative structure:
- Što X-er, to Y-er. = The X-er, the Y-er.
So:
- Što više učim hrvatski, to manje osjećam stres.
= The more I study Croatian, the less I feel stress.
Here "što" roughly corresponds to the English "the" in this special pattern (the more..., the less...), not to "what".
It’s a correlative comparative structure, very close to English "the more..., the less..." / "the more..., the more...".
Template:
- Što + comparative (1st clause), to + comparative (2nd clause).
In your sentence:
- Što više učim hrvatski = The more I study Croatian
- to manje osjećam stres = the less I feel stress
Other examples:
Što više radiš, to više zarađuješ.
The more you work, the more you earn.Što manje spavam, to sam umorniji.
The less I sleep, the more tired I am.
You can also sometimes hear "tim" instead of "to":
- Što više učim hrvatski, tim manje osjećam stres.
(Same meaning; a bit more bookish/formal.)
You can say that, but the nuance changes:
Što više učim hrvatski, to manje osjećam stres.
Emphasizes a general proportional relationship:
The more (in general) I study, the less (in general) I feel stress.Kad više učim hrvatski, manje osjećam stres.
Sounds more like: When(ever) I study Croatian more (than usual), I feel less stress.
It’s more like a conditional/temporal reading: When I do X more, then Y happens.
For a learner, it’s best to treat "Što... to..." as the natural way to say "the more..., the less...".
"hrvatski" here is in the accusative singular masculine form, used as the direct object of "učim" (I study).
- Verb: učiti (to study/learn) — takes a direct object in the accusative.
- Object: hrvatski (jezik) = Croatian (language).
For inanimate masculine nouns and adjectives used as nouns:
- Nominative = Accusative
So:- Nominative: hrvatski (as in Hrvatski je težak. – Croatian is hard.)
- Accusative: učim hrvatski. – I study Croatian.
"hrvatskog" would be genitive, used in different contexts (e.g. bez hrvatskog – without Croatian), not after učiti.
Both are correct:
- Učim hrvatski.
- Učim hrvatski jezik.
Using just "hrvatski" is very common and sounds completely natural.
In Croatian, adjectives like language names (hrvatski, engleski, njemački) often stand for "X language" in contexts where it’s obvious we are talking about a language.
So:
- Učim hrvatski (jezik). = I’m learning Croatian (the language).
Yes, that word order is possible and grammatical, but less neutral.
- Učim hrvatski is the most natural, neutral order.
- hrvatski učim places a bit more emphasis on "Croatian" (contrasting it with some other language or subject).
Your original sentence:
- Što više učim hrvatski, to manje osjećam stres.
is the most typical and natural ordering for this context.
All of these are possible, but with different usage and naturalness:
osjećam stres
- Literal: I feel stress.
- Very natural; uses "stres" as a direct object.
- Common way to talk about experiencing stress as a thing.
osjećam se stresno / osjećam se pod stresom
- osjećam se pod stresom = I feel under stress — natural.
- osjećam se stresno sounds less idiomatic; "stresno" is usually used of situations (e.g. A stressful day = stresan dan, bilo je stresno).
imam stres
- Literally I have stress.
- Understandable but less usual. People more often say:
- pod stresom sam = I am under stress
- jako sam pod stresom = I’m really stressed.
So your sentence "to manje osjećam stres" is very natural Croatian.
"stres" is in the accusative singular, functioning as the direct object of "osjećam" (I feel).
For most inanimate masculine nouns, accusative = nominative:
- Nominative: stres
- Accusative: osjećam stres
"stresa" is genitive singular, used after prepositions or quantifiers:
- puno stresa – a lot of stress
- bez stresa – without stress
- zbog stresa – because of stress
Here, because it is a direct object, "stres" is correct.
Both verbs are in the present tense of an imperfective verb:
- učim – present, 1st pers. sing., from učiti (imperfective)
- osjećam – present, 1st pers. sing., from osjećati (imperfective)
Imperfective is used for:
- ongoing actions
- habitual/repeated actions
- general truths and tendencies
Here, the sentence talks about a general tendency, so imperfective present is exactly right.
Perfective counterparts:
- naučiti (perfective) – to learn (finish learning)
- osjetiti (perfective) – to feel (in a moment, once)
You wouldn’t normally use the perfective here; e.g.
Što više naučim hrvatskog, to manje osjetim stres sounds odd and too event-like, not expressing a general rule.
Yes, you should write the comma.
Each part ("Što više učim hrvatski" and "to manje osjećam stres") is a separate clause in this correlative structure. In standard written Croatian, a comma normally separates them:
- Što više učim hrvatski, to manje osjećam stres.
In informal online writing people might omit it, but with a comma is the correct form.
Approximate pronunciation (Croatian has fairly phonemic spelling):
Što – /ʃtɔ/
- š like sh in ship
- t like English t
- o like o in boss (short)
više – /ˈviʃe/
- v like v in very
- i like ee in see
- š like sh
- e like e in bed
učim – /ˈutʃim/
- u like oo in boot
- č like ch in church
- i like ee
- m as in English
hrvatski – /xr̩ˈvatski/ (cluster hrv- pronounced together; r can be syllabic)
to – /tɔ/ (same o as in što)
manje – /ˈmaɲe/ (nj like ny in canyon)
osjećam – /ˈosjetʃam/ (with je ~ ye; ć softer ch)
stres – /stres/
- s as in see
- t as in top
- r rolled
- e as in bed
- s as in see
Rhythm-wise, it flows quite smoothly:
Što VI‑še U‑čim HR‑vats‑ki, / to MAN‑je O‑sje‑ćam STRES.