plus...plus / moins...moins (The More..., the More...)
എത്ര...അത്ര (കൂടുതൽ...കൂടുതൽ)
French pairs plus or moins twice, once per clause, to build 'the more..., the more...' — and it does so without disturbing ordinary word order at all.
Grammar Comparison
വ്യാകരണ താരതമ്യം
Plus on..., plus on...: the more..., the more...
Plus on mange, plus on grossit. (The more one eats, the more one gets fat)
എത്ര കഴിക്കുന്നോ അത്ര തടിക്കും.
French repeats plus or moins at the start of each clause to build the correlative 'the more...the more' pattern, and both halves keep completely ordinary subject-verb-object order — no verb gets pushed anywhere. That makes this construction a close structural match for Malayalam's എത്ര...അത്ര frame: line up the two halves in the same order in both languages and the sentence is done.
Mixing plus and moins
Plus on est occupé, moins on a de temps. (The busier one is, the less time one has)
എത്ര തിരക്കാണോ അത്ര സമയം കുറയും.
The two halves don't have to match direction — freely combine plus...moins or moins...plus depending on how each half changes, just as Malayalam freely swaps കൂടുതൽ/കുറയും around the same എത്ര...അത്ര frame. Note how common on ('one/people in general', a casual stand-in for nous) is inside this construction — it appears in almost every example.
Vocabulary
വാക്കുകൾ
- Malayalam
- എത്ര...അത്ര (കൂടുതൽ)ethra...athra (kooduthal)
- English
- the more...the more
- Malayalam
- എത്ര...അത്ര (കുറവ്)ethra...athra (kuravu)
- English
- the less...the less
- Malayalam
- എത്ര കൂടുതലോ അത്ര കുറവ്ethra kooduthalo athra kuravu
- English
- the more...the less
- Malayalam
- അവൻ എത്ര അധ്വാനിക്കുന്നോ അത്ര വിജയിക്കും.avan ethra adhwaanikkunno athra vijayikkum.
- English
- The more he works, the more he succeeds.
- Malayalam
- നീ എത്ര കുറച്ച് ഉറങ്ങുന്നോ അത്ര ക്ഷീണം കൂടും.nee ethra kurachu urangunno athra ksheenam koodum.
- English
- The less you sleep, the more tired you are.