Pekara je bliže školi nego prodavnica.

to be

Breakdown of Pekara je bliže školi nego prodavnica.

• škola: school
• prodavnica: store
• pekara: bakery

Questions & Answers about Pekara je bliže školi nego prodavnica.

Why is školi used, and where is the word to?

Because Serbian often expresses to through a case ending rather than a separate word.

Here, škola becomes školi, which is the dative singular. After bliže (closer), Serbian commonly uses the dative for the thing something is closer to:

• škola = school
• školi = to the school

So bliže školi means closer to the school.

A useful comparison:

• blizu škole = near the school
• bliže školi = closer to the school

Why is prodavnica in the basic form instead of prodavnici or prodavnice?

Because prodavnica is the subject of an implied second clause.

The sentence is basically:

Pekara je bliže školi nego prodavnica (je).

In English: The bakery is closer to the school than the store (is).

Since prodavnica is the subject of that understood clause, it stays in the nominative form: prodavnica.

If you said prodavnici, that would suggest a different meaning: than to the store.

Is this sentence ambiguous the way the English sentence can be?