Što je vrh bliže, to idemo brže.

to be

Breakdown of Što je vrh bliže, to idemo brže.

• ići: to go
• brže: faster
• bliže: closer to

Questions & Answers about Što je vrh bliže, to idemo brže.

What does the što ..., to ... pattern mean here?

This is a very common Serbian pattern that matches English the ..., the ... in sentences like:

The closer the summit is, the faster we go.

So:

• što je vrh bliže = the closer the summit is
• to idemo brže = the faster we go

Here, što does not mean what. It is part of a fixed comparative-correlative structure: što X, to Y.

A similar example is:

Što više učiš, to više znaš.
The more you study, the more you know.

Why is je before vrh? Shouldn’t it be vrh je?

In a basic sentence, yes, you would normally say:

Vrh je bliže.
The summit is closer.

But je is a clitic in Serbian. Clitics usually go in the second position in their clause.

In this sentence, the clause begins with što, so the clitic je comes right after it:

Što je vrh bliže ...

So this word order is not random; it follows the normal Serbian clitic-placement rule.

What case is vrh in?

Vrh is in the nominative singular.

It is the subject of the clause: