越来越 (yuèláiyuè) is Mandarin's way of saying "more and more" or "increasingly" — it tracks one thing moving steadily along a scale as time passes. English marks this by doubling the comparative ("colder and colder," "better and better") or with the adverb "increasingly"; Chinese uses one frozen unit, 越来越, dropped straight in front of the adjective or feeling-verb. Treat it as an indivisible block that means "progressively more" — you never break it up, never slip a degree word inside it, and you almost always close the sentence with a 了 to signal that the change is still under way. The literal parts (越 "the more," 来 "come," 越 "the more") add up to "the more it goes, the more…," but you're better off learning it whole.
越来越 + adjective: getting more and more …
The core pattern is [subject] 越来越 + adjective (+ 了). Because 越来越 already supplies the intensity, the adjective stays bare — no 很. The final 了 marks the whole situation as changing, which is the natural reading almost every time.
天气越来越冷了。
tiānqì yuèláiyuè lěng le
The weather's getting colder and colder. (informal)
手机越来越贵了。
shǒujī yuèláiyuè guì le
Phones are getting more and more expensive. (neutral)
天越来越黑，我们快回家吧。
tiān yuèláiyuè hēi, wǒmen kuài huí jiā ba
It's getting darker and darker — let's hurry home. (informal)
学中文的人越来越多了。
xué Zhōngwén de rén yuèláiyuè duō le
More and more people are learning Chinese. (neutral)
越来越 + feeling-verb: 越来越喜欢
Like 最, 越来越 also scales verbs of feeling and cognition — 喜欢 (like), 想 (miss / want), 了解 (understand), 讨厌 (hate). Here it means the feeling deepens over time.
我越来越喜欢这个城市了。
wǒ yuèláiyuè xǐhuan zhège chéngshì le
I'm liking this city more and more. (informal)
我对他越来越了解了。
wǒ duì tā yuèláiyuè liǎojiě le
I understand him more and more. (neutral)
他的中文越来越好了，都能看小说了。
tā de Zhōngwén yuèláiyuè hǎo le, dōu néng kàn xiǎoshuō le
His Chinese is getting better and better — he can even read novels now. (informal)
One scale over time — not A vs B
The crucial limit: 越来越 describes one subject drifting along a scale, not a comparison between two things. "The weather is getting colder" is 越来越; "Beijing is colder than Shanghai" is the 比 frame. And it is not the same as 越…越… ("the more X, the more Y"), which links two rising scales — that's the next page.
| Pattern | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 越来越 + adj | 越来越冷 | colder and colder |
| 越来越 + feeling-verb | 越来越喜欢 | like it more and more |
| 越来越 + adj + 了 | 越来越贵了 | getting more and more expensive |
你怎么越来越瘦了？是不是没好好吃饭？
nǐ zěnme yuèláiyuè shòu le? shì bu shì méi hǎohǎo chīfàn
How come you're getting thinner and thinner? Have you not been eating properly? (informal)
雨越来越大，比赛只好取消了。
yǔ yuèláiyuè dà, bǐsài zhǐhǎo qǔxiāo le
The rain got heavier and heavier, so the match had to be called off. (neutral)
Common Mistakes
1. Slipping a degree adverb inside. 越来越 already means "increasingly"; a 很 or 更 has no place with it.
❌ 天气越来越很冷了。
Wrong — no 很 with 越来越: 天气越来越冷了.
✅ 天气越来越冷了。
tiānqì yuèláiyuè lěng le
The weather's getting colder and colder. (informal)
2. Dropping one 越. It is 越-来-越, a fixed three-character block; 越越 is not a word.
❌ 手机越越贵了。
Wrong — the unit is 越来越, with 来 in the middle: 手机越来越贵了.
✅ 手机越来越贵了。
shǒujī yuèláiyuè guì le
Phones are getting more and more expensive. (neutral)
3. Placing 越来越 after the adjective. It leads the phrase; the adjective follows it.
❌ 天气冷越来越了。
Wrong order — 越来越 goes before the adjective: 天气越来越冷了.
✅ 天气越来越冷了。
tiānqì yuèláiyuè lěng le
The weather's getting colder and colder. (informal)
4. Using 越来越 for 'the more X, the more Y'. That needs two 越, not the 越来越 block. See the 越…越… page.
❌ 越来越学越来越难。
Wrong pattern — for 'the more you study, the harder it gets' use 越学越难.
✅ 越学越难。
yuè xué yuè nán
The more you study it, the harder it gets. (informal) — that's 越…越…, the next page.
Key Takeaways
- 越来越 + adjective/feeling-verb = "more and more / increasingly," one thing changing along a scale over time.
- It's a frozen three-character unit — never split it, never drop a 越, never put a degree word inside.
- The adjective stays bare (no 很), and the sentence usually ends in 了 to mark the ongoing change.
- It scales feeling-verbs too: 越来越喜欢, 越来越了解.
- It tracks one subject over time — for "the more X, the more Y" (two scales), switch to 越…越….
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- 越…越…: The More … The More …HSK 3 — 越…越… (yuè…yuè…) is the correlative 'the more … the more …', locking two rising scales together: 越吃越想吃 (the more you eat, the more you want to), 越快越好 (the faster the better).
- The Superlative 最HSK 1 — 最 (zuì) is the superlative 'most / -est', sitting before an adjective or a feeling-verb: 最高 (tallest), 最喜欢 (like most), 最好 (best), often scoped by …中/里 for 'the most … of them all'.
- Sentence-Final 了 (le₂): Change of State / 'Now'HSK 1 — Sentence-final 了 (le₂) reports a NEW situation — 'now it's different': 下雨了 (it's started raining), 我懂了 (now I get it), 十二点了 (it's twelve now). It marks a change of state, not the completion of a verb.
- Degree Adverbs (非常 / 特别 / 挺 / 比较 / 真)HSK 2 — The everyday degree adverbs that scale an adjective — 非常 'extremely', 特别 'especially', 真 'really', 挺…的 'quite', 比较 'fairly', 十分 'very' (formal), and postposed 极了 — each with its own strength and register.