Što je uspon strmiji, to idemo sporije.

to be

Breakdown of Što je uspon strmiji, to idemo sporije.

• ići: to go
• sporije: more slowly
• što ... to ...: the more ... the more

Questions & Answers about Što je uspon strmiji, to idemo sporije.

What grammar pattern is Što ..., to ...?

It is a very common Serbian pattern used for proportional comparison:

• Što X, to Y
• English equivalent: the more X, the more Y / the X-er, the Y-er

So this sentence uses the same idea as English The steeper the climb, the more slowly we go.

A few more examples of the same pattern:

• Što više učim, to više znam.
  The more I study, the more I know.

• Što je hladnije, to manje izlazimo.
  The colder it is, the less we go out.

This is one of the most useful sentence patterns in Serbian.

Does što mean what here?

No. In this sentence, što does not mean what.

Here, što is part of the comparative construction što ..., to .... In that pattern, it works more like:

• the more
• the -er

So in this sentence, što is grammatical, not interrogative.

That is why you should not read Što je uspon strmiji... as a question like What is steeper.... It is the first half of a comparative statement.

Why is je used in Što je uspon strmiji?

Je is the 3rd person singular present form of = .