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

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plus… plus…
French comparison pattern
“the more… the more…”, with no “the” in French

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.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A2 French listening practice video?

94%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common French words
Most of the words in this video are common French words.

How common in written French

83.3%
Top 1,000
94%
Top 2,000
97.6%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken French

81%
Top 1,000
94.4%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.

progresses
1×
Not in top 5,000
hmm
1×
Not in top 5,000
hmm
premièrement
1×
Not in top 5,000
firstly, first of all
traducteur
1×
Not in top 5,000
translator
conventionnelle
1×
Not in top 5,000

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · Lexique 3.83 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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