At an advanced level, Turkish discourse stops just chaining clauses and starts correlating them — locking two quantities into a single rising relationship ("the more X, the more Y"), or framing two sides of a question against each other ("on one hand … on the other"). English builds these with paired frames: the … the …, both … and …, on one hand … on the other. Turkish has its own machinery, and the headline surprise is that its most elegant "the more … the more" needs no frame at all — a single converb suffix, -DIkçA, does the whole job. This page covers the proportional and correlative connectives that separate fluent argumentative prose from stitched-together sentences.
-DIkçA: "the more …, increasingly"
The converb -DIkçA attaches to a verb stem and means "as / the more / so long as." It is built from the participle -DIK plus the equative -çA, and it expresses that the main clause unfolds in proportion to the converb clause. Where English needs a two-armed the … the … frame, Turkish packs the proportionality into one suffix on the subordinate verb.
Büyüdükçe sakinleşti, eski sinirli çocuktan eser kalmadı.
The older he got, the calmer he became — no trace left of the hot-tempered kid.
Zaman geçtikçe acısı hafifledi ama tamamen geçmedi.
As time passed, the pain eased — though it never fully went away.
Read Büyüdükçe sakinleşti literally as "as-he-grew, he-calmed" — but the force is fully proportional: "the more he grew up, the calmer he got." The single suffix -dikçe carries what English splits across the more … the …. This is one of the cleanest demonstrations of Turkish's converb economy, and a hallmark of polished writing. The lexicalised gittikçe "increasingly, more and more" (literally "as it goes") is the most frozen member of the family — it has become an ordinary adverb.
Sorun gittikçe büyüyor, bir an önce müdahale etmeliyiz.
The problem is growing increasingly worse — we must intervene at once.
For the converb's full morphology, including its "so long as" reading (sen istemedikçe "so long as you don't want to"), see the -DIkçA converb page.
ne kadar … o kadar: the explicit "the more, the more"
When you want the proportionality made explicit and symmetrical — especially with adjectives or to foreground the correlation — Turkish uses the paired frame ne kadar … o kadar …, literally "how much … that much …" The first arm sets up the variable quantity; the second states what scales with it. This is the construction that most directly mirrors English the … the ….
Ne kadar erken çıkarsak o kadar iyi, trafiğe yakalanmayalım.
The earlier we leave, the better — let's not get caught in traffic.
İnsan ne kadar çok okursa o kadar az şey bildiğini anlar.
The more one reads, the more one realises how little one knows.
The first arm typically carries a conditional verb (çıkarsak, okursa), and the second arm is in the indicative. A compressed, proverb-like version drops the verbs entirely: ne kadar çok, o kadar iyi "the more, the better." This frame and -DIkçA overlap, but they divide labour: -DIkçA narrates a process unfolding over time ("as he grew…"), while ne kadar … o kadar states a general law of proportion ("the more … the more, always").
Sipariş ne kadar çok olursa o kadar büyük indirim alırsınız.
The larger the order, the bigger the discount you get.
hem … hem: balancing two true things
For additive correlation — asserting that two things are both the case — Turkish uses hem … hem (de) … "both … and …" At discourse level this does more than list: it balances two facts the speaker wants weighed together, often two pulls in tension. It is the natural connective for "it's both X and Y," and it pairs each arm before its element, like ya … ya "either … or."
Bu iş hem çok yorucu hem de çok keyifli, ikisi bir arada.
This job is both exhausting and very enjoyable — the two together.
Hem işe geç kaldım hem de telefonumu evde unuttum, berbat bir sabah.
I was both late for work and forgot my phone at home — an awful morning.
The de in the second arm (hem de) is the additive emphasiser "and also," and is usual but droppable. For the wider family of additive links — ayrıca, üstelik, bir de — see additive connectives. The point at this level is rhetorical: hem … hem lets you hold two facts in deliberate balance rather than subordinating one to the other.
bir yandan … öte yandan: the two sides of an argument
The discourse frame for weighing two perspectives is bir yandan … öte yandan / diğer yandan … "on one hand … on the other hand." It structures an argument by laying out a consideration, then its counterweight — the connective tissue of essays, op-eds, and reasoned debate. The standalone öte yandan "on the other hand / then again" can also pivot a discussion mid-paragraph without an opening bir yandan.
Bir yandan teklifi cazip buluyorum, öte yandan riskinden çekiniyorum.
On one hand I find the offer attractive; on the other, I'm wary of its risk.
Şehir hayatı yorucu; öte yandan, sunduğu fırsatları köyde bulamazsın.
City life is exhausting; then again, you won't find the opportunities it offers in a village.
This sits at the (formal)/(academic) end of the register scale — natural in writing and considered speech, slightly heavy for chit-chat. It is also subtly different from plain contrast: bir yandan … öte yandan presents two valid considerations rather than negating one with the other. For the sharper, fully contrastive connectives — -(y)sA/ise, ama, fakat — that genuinely set one clause against another, see contrast with ise and ama.
Bir yandan ailesine yakın olmak istiyor, öte yandan kariyeri başka şehirde.
On one hand she wants to be near her family; on the other, her career is in another city.
Common mistakes
❌ O kadar çok yedim, o kadar çok kilo aldım.
Wrong frame — using o kadar in both arms doesn't build 'the more…the more'; the first arm needs ne kadar.
✅ Ne kadar çok yersem o kadar çok kilo alırım.
The more I eat, the more weight I put on.
The correlative is ne kadar … o kadar …, not o kadar … o kadar. The first arm opens with ne kadar and usually carries a conditional verb.
❌ Daha o büyüdü, daha sakin oldu.
Calque — Turkish doesn't build 'the more…the more' with a doubled daha frame copied from English.
✅ Büyüdükçe sakinleşti.
The more he grew up, the calmer he became.
Don't transfer English the … the … literally with daha … daha. Use the -DIkçA converb (or ne kadar … o kadar).
❌ Hem yorgunum ama mutluyum.
Mixed frame — hem pairs with a second hem, not with ama; don't cross the two constructions.
✅ Hem yorgunum hem mutluyum.
I'm both tired and happy.
Hem requires a matching hem in the second arm. Crossing it with ama breaks the correlative pairing.
❌ Gittikçe geç kaldıkça sinirlendi.
Doubled marking — gittikçe and -DIkçA both encode 'as it went on'; stacking them is redundant.
✅ Geç kaldıkça sinirlendi.
The later he was, the angrier he got.
Don't pile the lexicalised gittikçe onto a -DIkçA clause that already carries the proportional meaning.
❌ Bir yandan istiyorum, ama yandan korkuyorum.
Broken frame — the pair is bir yandan … öte/diğer yandan; you can't shorten the second arm to bare yandan.
✅ Bir yandan istiyorum, öte yandan korkuyorum.
On one hand I want to; on the other, I'm afraid.
The second arm must be a full öte yandan / diğer yandan. A bare yandan is not the connective.
Key takeaways
- -DIkçA packs "the more X, the more Y" into a single converb suffix (Büyüdükçe sakinleşti); the lexicalised gittikçe = "increasingly."
- ne kadar … o kadar … is the explicit "the more … the more" frame — first arm ne kadar
- conditional, second arm o kadar
- indicative.
- conditional, second arm o kadar
- hem … hem (de) … "both … and …" balances two true facts; each hem sits before its element.
- bir yandan … öte/diğer yandan … weighs two valid sides of an argument (formal/academic); standalone öte yandan = "then again."
- Don't calque English: no daha … daha, no o kadar … o kadar; keep the correlative arms correctly paired.
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- The Converb -DIkçA ('as long as / the more')B2 — How -DIkçA encodes open-ended, proportional repetition — covering 'as long as', 'whenever', and 'the more … the more' with one suffix.
- Correlatives: hem…hem, ya…ya, ne…neB1 — Turkish paired conjunctions — hem…hem (de) 'both…and', ya…ya (da) 'either…or', ne…ne (de) 'neither…nor', and gerek…gerek(se) 'whether…or'.
- Contrast: ama, ise, oysa, halbukiB2 — Four ways to mark contrast in Turkish — plain ama 'but', the clitic topic-contraster ise 'as for/whereas', and oysa/halbuki for counter-expectation 'but in fact' — and how to choose the one that says exactly what you mean.
- Sequencing: sonra, ayrıca, ondan sonra, üstelikB1 — Text-organizing connectives that order and stack points in Turkish — then, besides, moreover, first of all, finally — and why üstelik adds attitude that neutral ayrıca does not.