Breakdown of De même que le sport améliore le corps, de même le sommeil améliore la santé cognitive et mentale.
et
and
le sommeil
the sleep / the sleepiness
le sport
the sport / the exercise
améliorer
to improve
Questions & Answers about De même que le sport améliore le corps, de même le sommeil améliore la santé cognitive et mentale.
How does the de même que... de même... structure work in this sentence?
This is an elegant correlative structure used to draw a parallel, translating roughly to "Just as [X], so too [Y]." The first part, de même que, establishes the base fact (just as sports improve the body), while the second part, de même, introduces the parallel fact (similarly sleep improves cognitive health).
Since de même que ends in que, why isn't the verb améliorer in the subjunctive?
Because de même que introduces a statement of fact or a real comparison, not a doubt, wish, or hypothetical situation. Conjunctions of comparison generally take the indicative mood in French, which is why we use the present indicative améliore here.
Why doesn't the second clause also use que (i.e., de même que le sommeil...)?
The English translation says "sports," so why does the French sentence use the singular le sport?