How do you say “the more… the more” in French?
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A2 French listening practice · French from France · Picked for people who know a little
To say “the more you do X, the more Y,” French simply puts plus at the front of each half: plus tu progresses, plus tu penses de manière complexe, “the more you progress, the more complex your thinking gets.” There is no article, so English speakers' le plus… le plus is a common mistake. Swap in moins for “the less,” and mix them freely.
Mixed versions are just as common: plus je dors, moins j’ai d’énergie (“the more I sleep, the less energy I have”). The best-known example is a proverb, plus on est de fous, plus on rit, literally “the more fools there are, the more we laugh,” the French for “the more the merrier.” The teacher in the clip uses the pattern to describe thinking in French: start with simple sentences, and the further you get, the more complex they become.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · Lexique 3.83 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.