-(으)ㄹ수록: The More… The More | Korean Grammar

English builds "the more you study, the more fun it gets" out of two matching the more… phrases, one per clause. Korean does the whole job with one ending — -(으)ㄹ수록 — glued onto the first verb, and then simply states the escalating result in the second clause. There is no separate word for "the more"; the correlation lives entirely in that ending. Once you hear it as a single unit, it becomes one of the most satisfying connectors in the language.

The form: -(으)ㄹ수록

The ending attaches to a verb or adjective stem, with the usual -(으)ㄹ allomorphy:

Stem ends in…	Ending	Example
a consonant (받침)	-을수록	먹다 → 먹을수록, 읽다 → 읽을수록
a vowel	-ㄹ수록	가다 → 갈수록, 배우다 → 배울수록
ㄹ (a ㄹ-stem)	-수록	살다 → 살수록, 알다 → 알수록, 들다 → 들수록

The ㄹ-stem row is where learners slip. Because the stem already ends in ㄹ, you do not add 을 or a second ㄹ — you simply attach 수록. So 살다 ("to live") gives 살수록, never ×살을수록. See ㄹ-stem verbs for the pattern behind this.

한국어는 배울수록 재미있어요.

hangugeoneun baeulsurok jaemi-isseoyo

The more you study Korean, the more fun it gets.

값이 쌀수록 잘 팔려요.

gapsi ssalsurok jal pallyeoyo

The cheaper it is, the better it sells.

나이가 들수록 시간이 빨리 가요.

naiga deulsurok sigani ppalli gayo

The older you get, the faster time seems to go.

Notice that only the first verb carries -(으)ㄹ수록. The second clause (재미있어요, 잘 팔려요, 시간이 빨리 가요) is just an ordinary sentence describing the rising result. English speakers instinctively want to mark "the more" twice; Korean marks it once and lets the result clause stand plain.

The idiomatic frame: -(으)면 …-(으)ㄹ수록

In real speech, -(으)ㄹ수록 rarely walks alone. It is overwhelmingly preceded by a -(으)면 clause that repeats the very same verb, forming the frame [verb-으면] [verb-을수록]. This doubling is not redundant padding — it is the natural, idiomatic default, and a bare -(으)ㄹ수록 often sounds slightly bare without it.

보면 볼수록 예뻐요.

bomyeon bolsurok yeppeoyo

The more I look at it, the prettier it gets.

알면 알수록 어려워요.

almyeon alsurok eoryeowoyo

The more you learn about it, the harder it gets.

이 노래는 들으면 들을수록 좋아요.

i noraeneun deureumyeon deureulsurok joayo

The more I listen to this song, the more I like it.

That last one shows the ㄷ-irregular verb 듣다 ("to listen") in action: before a vowel its ㄷ becomes ㄹ, so 듣 → 들으면, 들을수록 (see ㄷ-irregular verbs). Learn the frame as a rhythmic unit — 면 … ㄹ수록 — and you will produce it automatically. The -(으)면 half is the ordinary conditional you already know from -(으)면: if/when.

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Treat 보면 볼수록, 알면 알수록, 하면 할수록 as ready-made templates. Native speakers reach for the -(으)면 …-(으)ㄹ수록 frame far more than a lone -(으)ㄹ수록, so drilling the paired version is the fastest route to sounding natural.

운동은 하면 할수록 건강해져요.

undong-eun hamyeon halsurok geonganghaejeoyo

The more you exercise, the healthier you get.

What it really means: proportional escalation

The core meaning is proportion: as the first situation intensifies, the second scales up (or down) with it. It is not "if X then Y" (that is plain -(으)면), and it is not "because X, Y" (that is -아서/-(으)니까). It says the two move together, by degrees — dial one up and the other follows.

Because of that, -(으)ㄹ수록 pairs naturally with a change-of-state result: 재미있어져요, 건강해져요, 좋아져요, 어려워져요. The first clause supplies the rising cause; the second reports where the needle has moved.

생각하면 생각할수록 화가 나요.

saenggakamyeon saenggakalsurok hwaga nayo

The more I think about it, the angrier I get.

갈수록: the frozen "increasingly"

One offshoot has hardened into a stand-alone adverb: 갈수록, literally "as [time] goes," now meaning simply "increasingly / more and more as time passes." It no longer needs a matching first clause — it just sits in front of a verb like any adverb.

날씨가 갈수록 추워져요.

nalssiga galsurok chuwojeoyo

The weather is getting colder and colder.

물가가 갈수록 올라요.

mulgaga galsurok ollayo

Prices keep going up more and more.

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갈수록 is an adverb you can drop into a sentence whole. There is even the fixed idiom 갈수록 태산 ("the further you go, the higher the mountains") — the Korean equivalent of "out of the frying pan into the fire," used when things go from bad to worse.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1 — Adding 을 to a ㄹ-stem. ㄹ-stems attach 수록 directly; there is no 을.

❌ 나이가 들을수록 시간이 빨리 가요.

Incorrect — 들다 is a ㄹ-stem, so no 을.

✅ 나이가 들수록 시간이 빨리 가요.

naiga deulsurok sigani ppalli gayo

The older you get, the faster time goes.

Mistake 2 — Using -을수록 after a vowel stem. After a vowel, use bare -ㄹ수록.

❌ 시간이 가을수록 걱정돼요.

Incorrect — 가다 is a vowel stem, so it must be 갈수록.

✅ 시간이 갈수록 걱정돼요.

sigani galsurok geokjeongdwaeyo

The more time passes, the more worried I get.

Mistake 3 — Dropping the -(으)면 partner. Not ungrammatical, but a lone -(으)ㄹ수록 sounds bare where a native would double the verb.

볼수록 예뻐요.

bolsurok yeppeoyo

Understandable but bare — a native would double the verb: 보면 볼수록.

✅ 보면 볼수록 예뻐요.

bomyeon bolsurok yeppeoyo

The more I look, the prettier it gets.

Mistake 4 — Marking "the more" twice. English speakers try to force a second "the more" onto the result clause. In Korean the result clause is a plain sentence.

❌ 배울수록 더 재미있을수록 좋아요.

Incorrect — only the first verb takes -(으)ㄹ수록; the result clause stands plain.

✅ 배울수록 재미있어요.

baeulsurok jaemi-isseoyo

The more you study, the more fun it is.

Mistake 5 — Putting past tense on the ending. -(으)ㄹ수록 attaches to the plain stem; it never carries -았/었-. Say 배울수록, not ×배웠을수록.

Key Takeaways

-(으)ㄹ수록 = "the more X, the more Y," expressed with one ending on the first verb.
Allomorphy: 먹을수록 (consonant), 갈수록 / 배울수록 (vowel), 살수록 (ㄹ-stem — no 을).
The natural default is the doubled frame [verb-으면] [verb-을수록]: 보면 볼수록, 알면 알수록, 하면 할수록.
The result clause is a plain sentence — do not mark "the more" a second time.
갈수록 has frozen into an adverb meaning "increasingly, as time goes on."

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