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.
You May Also Like

The Passive (される)

First of all, a quick reminder of what we mean by the passive. Present Passive to approve to…

About or Approximately: ~ぐらい

くらい is the most common way of saying “about” or “approximately” in Japanese. It will usually be introduced…

The Double Negative

ざる is another archaic form of the negative and 得ない can be used to mean “cannot do”. Put…

Listing Actions & Descriptions (~たり)

We can make partial lists nouns with the や and など particles, but what about verbs? Similarly to…