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Naš novi stan je veći od starog stana.

Naš novi stan je veći od starog stana.
Our new apartment is bigger than the old apartment.

Breakdown of Naš novi stan je veći od starog stana.

biti
to be
nov
new
star
old
stan
apartment
od
than
naš
our
veći
heavier
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Questions & Answers about Naš novi stan je veći od starog stana.

Why is it veći and not više veliki?

In Croatian, most common adjectives form the comparative with a single comparative form, not with an adverb like više (more).

  • velik (big) → veći (bigger)
  • You do not say: više veliki for “bigger” in normal usage.

This is similar to English: you say bigger, not more big.

više + adjective is used with some adjectives (especially longer or foreign ones), e.g.

  • više moderan (more modern), više praktičan (more practical),
    but for basic adjectives like velik, the correct comparative is veći.
Why is it od starog stana for “than the old apartment”? Why use od?

Croatian usually uses the preposition od + genitive case to express comparisons with “than”:

  • veći od
    • genitive → “bigger than …”
  • manji od
    • genitive → “smaller than …”
  • bolji od
    • genitive → “better than …”

So in this sentence:

  • od (from/than)
  • starog stana is in the genitive singular (masculine):
    • nominative: stari stan (old apartment)
    • genitive: starog stana (of the old apartment → after od, meaning “than the old apartment”)

Structurally it’s literally “bigger from the old apartment”, but in English we translate it as “bigger than the old apartment”.

Why does starog stana change form, but novi stan doesn’t?

Because they are in different cases:

  • Naš novi stan → here stan is the subject of the sentence, so it’s in the nominative:
    • novi stan (new apartment) – nominative
  • od starog stana → after od, Croatian requires the genitive:
    • starog stana (of the old apartment) – genitive

So:

  • novi (nom. masc. sg.) + stan (nom.)
  • starog (gen. masc. sg.) + stana (gen.)

The different endings show the different grammatical roles.

Could I just say “Naš novi stan je veći od starog” and drop stana?

Yes, that is completely natural.

  • Naš novi stan je veći od starog.

Here starog is understood as starog stana from context. Native speakers often drop the noun when it’s obvious what is meant. The adjective then behaves almost like a pronoun: “the old one”.

Both versions are correct:

  • Naš novi stan je veći od starog stana. (full, explicit)
  • Naš novi stan je veći od starog. (more colloquial, very common)
Why is it novi stan instead of nova stan or novo stan?

Because stan is a masculine noun in Croatian.

Adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case. For stan (masculine, singular, nominative):

  • masculine: novi stan (new apartment)
  • feminine: nova kuća (new house)
  • neuter: novo selo (new village)

So novi is the masculine singular nominative form of the adjective nov (new), matching stan.

What is the role of je in this sentence, and can it move?

je is the 3rd person singular present form of biti (to be). It works like English “is”:

  • Naš novi stan je veći …
    “Our new apartment is bigger …”

Croatian word order is fairly flexible, so je can move, especially in speech and for emphasis:

  • Naš novi stan je veći od starog stana. (neutral)
  • Naš je novi stan veći od starog stana. (slight emphasis on “our”)
  • Novi je naš stan veći od starog stana. (putting more stress on “new”)

All of these are grammatically possible; the original order is the most neutral for learners.

How do you form the comparative of adjectives like velik in general?

For many common one-syllable or short adjectives, Croatian uses suffixes to form the comparative, often with a stem change:

  • velik (big) → veći (bigger)
  • mali (small) → manji (smaller)
  • dobar (good) → bolji (better)
  • loš (bad) → gori (worse)
  • skup (expensive) → skuplji (more expensive)

Pattern (simplified):

  1. Take the base adjective.
  2. Often add -ji or -ši (with some stem changes).

For many longer or foreign adjectives, you usually use više + adjective:

  • više praktičan (more practical)
  • više siguran (safer/more safe, though sigurniji also exists)

With velik, the standard comparative is veći, not više velik.

What is the difference between veći and najveći?

  • veći = comparative → “bigger / larger” (comparison between two or more things)

    • Naš novi stan je veći od starog stana.
      “Our new apartment is bigger than the old one.”

  • najveći = superlative → “the biggest / the largest”

    • Naš novi stan je najveći u zgradi.
      “Our new apartment is the biggest in the building.”

Formally, naj- + comparative:

  • veći → najveći
  • manji → najmanji
  • bolji → najbolji
How can I tell that stan is masculine and not feminine or neuter?

Partly by dictionary knowledge, partly by typical endings:

  • Many masculine nouns end in a consonant:
    • stan, grad, stol, pas
  • Many feminine nouns end in -a:
    • kuća, škola, soba
  • Many neuter nouns end in -o or -e:
    • selo, more, ime

So the bare form stan (ending in a consonant) is normally masculine. The adjective form novi also confirms this, since novi is masculine nominative.

Is there another way to say “than” besides od in this kind of sentence?

Yes. Croatian also uses nego, especially when comparing with pronouns or whole clauses, but od is very common with adjectives like veći.

With nouns, both can appear, but od is more typical here:

  • Naš novi stan je veći od starog stana. (most natural)
  • Naš novi stan je veći nego stari stan. (possible, but less common here)

You will very often hear od + genitive after comparatives of adjectives when the second part is a noun phrase. Nego is very frequent when you compare whole ideas:

  • Bolje je imati manji stan nego nemati stan.
    “It’s better to have a smaller apartment than to have no apartment.”