Breakdown of Naarmate ze meer persingen uitbrengen, worden ze des te goedkoper.
goedkoop
cheap
worden
to become
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
meer
more
Questions & Answers about Naarmate ze meer persingen uitbrengen, worden ze des te goedkoper.
How does des te work with goedkoper in this sentence?
The phrase des te emphasizes the comparative adjective goedkoper (cheaper). It translates to "all the cheaper" or "that much cheaper". It shows that the cheapness increases specifically as a result of the action in the first half of the sentence.
Could I use hoe ... hoe ... (the ... the ...) instead of naarmate ... des te ...?
Yes! You could say Hoe meer persingen ze uitbrengen, hoe goedkoper ze worden. Using naarmate (as / to the extent that) paired with des te (all the / that much) is simply a slightly more formal and elegant way to express the exact same proportional relationship.
Why is the word order worden ze and not ze worden after the comma?
The entire first clause (Naarmate ze meer persingen uitbrengen) takes up the first grammatical position in the overall sentence. Because Dutch main clauses follow the V2 rule (the conjugated verb must come second), the main verb worden is placed immediately after the comma, forcing the subject ze to flip behind it.
The verb uitbrengen (to release) is separable. Why isn't it split up into brengen ... uit here?
Naarmate is a subordinating conjunction, which means it introduces a dependent clause. In Dutch dependent clauses, verbs are pushed to the very end. When a separable verb gets pushed to the end of a clause like this, its prefix and core verb stick together as a single word (uitbrengen).