Breakdown of Je weiser man wird, desto besser versteht man alles.
verstehen
to understand
werden
to become / to get (change of state)
man
one / you (impersonal)
besser
better
alles
everything
je
the (in proportional comparisons)
desto
the (second part of proportional comparisons)
weise
wise
Questions & Answers about Je weiser man wird, desto besser versteht man alles.
Why is the verb wird at the very end, but versteht comes right after desto besser?
This is the most important rule for je ... desto sentences! The je half acts as a subordinate clause, which kicks its conjugated verb (wird) to the very end. The desto half acts as a main clause, but the phrase desto besser takes up the first position. Since the verb must always come second in a German main clause, versteht comes right after it, pushing the subject (man) to the third position.
Could I say umso besser instead of desto besser here?
Yes, absolutely! The structures je ... desto and je ... umso mean the exact same thing and are completely interchangeable. You can safely say Je weiser man wird, umso besser versteht man alles.
The English translation says 'one becomes'. Does man just mean 'one'?
Yes, man is an impersonal pronoun meaning 'one', but in everyday speech it usually represents a general 'you' or 'people'. You could easily translate this as 'The wiser you get, the better you understand everything.' Notice that man always takes the third-person singular verb conjugation, which is why it is paired with wird and versteht.
How is the comparative adjective weiser formed?
It comes from the base adjective weise (wise). To form comparative adjectives in German, you generally add -er to the end of the word. Since weise already ends in an -e, you only need to add an -r to make weiser (wiser).
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