Wij vergelijken niet zozeer de groepsgrootte als wel het dagritme.

It is a fixed Dutch pattern meaning not so much ... as rather ..., not so much ... but rather ..., or rather ... than ....

So:

Wij vergelijken niet zozeer de groepsgrootte als wel het dagritme.

means something like:

We are comparing not so much the group size as rather the daily rhythm.

It does not mean that the first thing is completely excluded. It usually means the second thing is the more important focus.

In this expression, zozeer is normally written as one word. It functions as an adverb meaning something like so much or to such an extent.

You may also encounter zo zeer in other contexts, but in the fixed expression niet zozeer ... als wel ..., learners should generally remember it as:

niet zozeer ... als wel ...

So it is best to learn the whole pattern as a single unit.

Because niet zozeer ... als wel ... is a set construction. The two parts belong together:

• niet zozeer = not so much
• als wel = as rather / but rather

You could sometimes rephrase the sentence with maar eerder or just maar, for example:

Wij vergelijken niet zozeer de groepsgrootte, maar eerder het dagritme.

But the original version sounds a bit more formal and more carefully balanced. It is common in written Dutch and formal speech.

Both wij and we mean we.

• we is more common in everyday speech
• wij is slightly fuller, often a bit more formal or emphatic

So this sentence could also be:

We vergelijken niet zozeer de groepsgrootte als wel het dagritme.

That would sound a little more conversational. Using wij here fits the somewhat formal style of the whole sentence.

Vergelijken means to compare.

In this sentence, it takes a direct object:

• de groepsgrootte
• het dagritme

The speaker is saying what they are focusing their comparison on.

Dutch also often uses vergelijken met when explicitly stating what something is compared with:

• Wij vergelijken A met B. = We compare A with B.

But in your sentence, the structure is different. It is not mainly about comparing one thing with another. It is about saying which aspect is the real focus:

• not so much the group size
• but rather the daily rhythm

No change is needed here. Both noun phrases stay in their normal form because they are parallel objects of the same verb vergelijken.

Structure:

• Wij vergelijken
• niet zozeer de groepsgrootte
• als wel het dagritme

Both de groepsgrootte and het dagritme are things being compared or considered. Dutch does not require a special case ending here.

Because Dutch nouns have grammatical gender/classes, and each noun takes either de or het.

• de groepsgrootte is a de-word
• het dagritme is a het-word

There is no special reason in this sentence; it is simply something you have to learn with each noun.

A useful note:

• many compound nouns take the article of the final part
• groepsgrootte ends in grootte, which is a de-word
• dagritme ends in ritme, which is a het-word

So the article follows the last element of the compound.

They are both compound nouns, which are very common in Dutch.

• groepsgrootte = groep
  • grootte
    literally: group size
• dagritme = dag
  • ritme
    literally: day rhythm or daily rhythm

Dutch often joins words together where English may use separate words.

Examples:

• groepsleider = group leader
• dagindeling = daily schedule
• slaapritme = sleep rhythm

So this sentence is also a good example of how natural compound formation is in Dutch.

Yes. This is normal Dutch main-clause word order.

The finite verb vergelijken comes in second position:

• Wij = subject
• vergelijken = finite verb
• the rest of the sentence follows

So:

Wij vergelijken niet zozeer de groepsgrootte als wel het dagritme.

is structurally straightforward for a main clause.

The slightly tricky part is not the word order, but the fixed expression niet zozeer ... als wel ....

Not exactly. Niet alone is just not, but niet zozeer is softer and more nuanced.

Compare:

• Wij vergelijken de groepsgrootte niet.
  = We are not comparing the group size.

• Wij vergelijken niet zozeer de groepsgrootte als wel het dagritme.
  = It is not so much the group size that we are comparing, but rather the daily rhythm.

So niet zozeer does not completely reject the first item; it downplays it in favor of the second.

Yes, it sounds fairly formal or academic, mainly because of the expression niet zozeer ... als wel ... and the use of wij instead of we.

In more everyday Dutch, someone might say:

We vergelijken eigenlijk meer het dagritme dan de groepsgrootte.

or

We kijken minder naar de groepsgrootte en meer naar het dagritme.

These are less formal and often easier for learners to understand.

Not very naturally. A very literal translation would be awkward in English.

Word-for-word-ish:

• Wij = we
• vergelijken = compare
• niet zozeer = not so much
• de groepsgrootte = the group size
• als wel = as rather / but rather
• het dagritme = the daily rhythm

A more natural English rendering would be:

We are comparing not so much the group size as the daily rhythm.

or

We are focusing less on group size than on daily rhythm.

So it is better to translate the whole construction idiomatically, not piece by piece.

Usually the contrast gets the stress.

A natural spoken pattern would emphasize:

• niet zozeer
• groepsgrootte
• als wel
• dagritme

Especially dagritme will often get strong stress, because it is the element being presented as the more important one.

So the sentence is contrastive: it sets up one option and then redirects attention to another.

Not in this fixed expression.

In English, learners may think of more X than Y, but Dutch does not form this sentence that way. Here the idiomatic pattern is:

niet zozeer X als wel Y

So for this kind of contrast, als wel is the expected choice.

If you want a different structure, you could rephrase the whole sentence instead, for example:

Wij vergelijken eerder het dagritme dan de groepsgrootte.

That is a different sentence pattern, and there dan is possible. But in the original construction, keep als wel.