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Within the expression такой, какой must both components be in the same case? Or rather, какой may take another case, according to the content of the second clause?

For example:

"She's just like she was previously."

Она такая, какая (какой) она была раньше.

"She's just like the way I saw her for the first time."

Она такая, какой я увидел её впервые.

"The contemporary flag of Russia is the same as the flag of Imperial Russia."

Сегодняшний флаг России такой, каким был флаг царской России.

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  • "She's just like the way I saw her for the first time." - isn't "like" unneeded in that phrase and better be dropped? – Arioch Jun 25 '18 at 16:36
  • Even gender might be different: Сегодня знамя России такое, каким был флаг царской России. – Arioch Jun 25 '18 at 16:37
  • for discussion about the difference between Instrumental and Nominative for adjectives (which is relevant to какая - какой) please refer to Use of instrumental with был/быть, e.g. “Ты был забавным.” listed in the sidebar and more references in the comments there... i see Sergey Slepov has beat me to it – Баян Купи-ка Jun 25 '18 at 18:21
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Какая can take any case according to the content of the second clause, as you suggest:

  • Она такая, какая есть.
  • Она такая, какой была раньше.
  • Она такая, какой можно многое пообещать.
  • Она такая, какую ещё поискать надо.
  • Она такая, какой можно гордиться.
  • Она такая, на какой можно даже жениться.
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  • Let me see if I can translate all of those examples... - She's the way she is. - She's just like before. - She's the kind of girl whom one can promise much. (?) - She's the kind of girl I have yet to look for. - She's the kind of girl one can be proud of. - She's the kind of girl a man can get married with. – swrutra Jun 26 '18 at 15:15
  • @swrutra You translated all examples correctly. The one in Accusative case means - Such a girl is hard to find. – Vitaly Jun 28 '18 at 0:59
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From your examples it's evident that какой is part of the second clause and inflects accordingly. In all your examples какой is in the instrumental case which is required by был/увидел.

You can use nominative with был (Она такая, какая она была раньше.) but to me that sounds colloquial.

See also this question.

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  • I saw the post you linked to. It has always been a doubt of mine whether to use instrumental or nominative after "был(а)", but maybe it's possible to sum up that был + nominative has an imperfective nuance while был + instrumental has a perfective nuance? If I'm not mistaken, infinitive быть always requires the instrumental, like будет. – swrutra Jun 26 '18 at 15:23

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