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77 As If: Advanced Clauses
This chapter will wrap up the remaining clauses and clause-like constructions, so it
could be also called various stuff that can be done with da (and sometimes što).
The first thing we’re going to deal with are so-called complex conjunctions. Some
clauses in Croatian can have two forms — one with što, and another with da. For
example:
kao što (+ clause) as
kao da (+ clause) as if
The main difference is that forms with što refer to something that has happened, or
will happen for sure (at least, what is expected to happen), and ones with da to
something that did not happen, or is not expected to happen.
For example:
Vruće je kao što je bilo prošli tjedan A . It’s hot as it was the last week. ®
Vruće je kao da smo u Africi DL . It’s hot as if we were in Africa.
The first sentence compares the heat to something that really happened, and the
second one to something obviously not true. You can say the second sentence while
in Africa only if you’re joking.
Another situation where we have što vs. da is with comparison conjunction nego,
when used with a clause:
nego što (+ clause) than
nego da (+ clause) than (something imagined)
The combination nego da is only used to compare to something unreal, imagined,
while nego što compares to another, existing action or state:
Hotel N je bolji N nego što sam očekivao. The hotel is better than I’ve expected.
Another complex conjunction which shows such duality is umjesto:
(desired event) umjesto što (real event)
(real event) umjesto da (imagined event)
English here uses only instead.
When you look more carefully, the reason and purpose clauses follow a similar
pattern:
zato što (+ clause) because
(zato) da (+ clause) so that
The correspondence is not perfect, for two reasons: first, zato is used in purpose
clauses only for emphasis: only da is normally used. Second, purpose clauses are
restricted to the present tense only.