More and More

The structures introduced here lets us say things like “the cheaper the better” or “the higher you climb the colder it will get”. In fact, it is a combination of two pieces of grammar that we have already learnt: the conditional and ほど.

【Verb: 〜ば】【Verb: Dictionary】ほど

お酒を飲めば飲むほど酔っ払う。

The more you drink the more drunk you’ll become.

食べれば食べるほど太ってしまう。

The more you eat the fatter you will get.

人がいればいるほど楽しいです。

The more the merrier.

日本語を勉強すればするほど日本語が上手になります。

The more you study Japanese the better your Japanese will become.

Note the omission of 勉強 for the second verb. The verb is obvious from the structure and so does not need to be repeated.

決して、お金があればあるほど幸せになるとは言えない。

You cannot definitely say that the more money you have the happier you will be.

We can also apply the structure to adjectives.

【I-Adjective: 〜ば】【I-Adjective】ほど

【Na-Adjective】なら【Na-Adjective】なほど

早ければ早いほどいい。

The faster the better.

For simple sentences we can also omit the conditional.

安いほどいい。

The cheaper the better.

寿司は魚が新鮮なら新鮮なほどおいしい。

For sushi, the fresher the fish the better.

経験が豊かなら豊かなほど様々な問題に対応できる。

The more experience you have the more you’ll be able to deal with all sorts of issues.