Learn Romanian › decat

decat

than /deˈkɨt/

adverb#1008 most common

Also: only, but, except

Example sentences

Maria este mai mare decât Ion.
Maria is older than Ion.
Nu am decât o soră.
I only have one sister.
Cartea este mai interesantă decât filmul.
The book is more interesting than the movie.
Nu poți face nimic altceva decât să aștepți.
You can't do anything else but wait.
Mai bine tac decât să spun ceva greșit.
Better to stay silent than say something wrong.
Realitatea s-a dovedit a fi cu totul altceva decât ne așteptam.
Reality turned out to be something entirely different than we expected.

Word family

câthow much, how manyatâtso much, that muchoricâthowever much, no matter how muchcâtvasome, a certain amount of

Etymology

Decât formed from the preposition de, from Latin de, joined with cât, from Latin quantus, quantum, meaning "how much" or "how many". The combination first served comparisons, as in mai mult decât, "more than". A second use grew out of negated sentences: nu... decât, literally close to "not... but how much", came to mean "only" or "nothing but".

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