Breakdown of Hoe meer aandacht ik geef aan mijn ademhaling, hoe rustiger ik word.
Questions & Answers about Hoe meer aandacht ik geef aan mijn ademhaling, hoe rustiger ik word.
In this structure hoe does not mean how in the question sense. It corresponds to English the in expressions like:
- The more attention I give to my breathing, the calmer I become.
So:
- Hoe meer aandacht … hoe rustiger …
= The more attention … the calmer …
The pattern is:
- hoe + comparative (meer, minder, beter, rustiger, vaker, etc.) + clause, hoe + comparative + clause
Examples:
Hoe meer je oefent, hoe beter je wordt.
The more you practise, the better you become.Hoe minder ik slaap, hoe chagrijniger ik ben.
The less I sleep, the grumpier I am.
So the double hoe is a fixed comparative pattern: hoe X-er … hoe Y-er … = the X-er … the Y-er …
In this construction, each part (hoe meer …, hoe rustiger …) behaves like a kind of dependent clause. That means:
- You keep normal subject–verb order: ik geef, ik word.
- You do not invert to geef ik as you would in a main clause after fronting something.
Compare:
Normal main clause:
Ik geef veel aandacht aan mijn ademhaling.
(subject ik before verb geef)Fronting in a main clause (gives inversion):
Aan mijn ademhaling geef ik veel aandacht.
But in the hoe … hoe … structure, you don’t use that inversion:
- ✅ Hoe meer aandacht ik geef aan mijn ademhaling, hoe rustiger ik word.
- ❌ Hoe meer aandacht geef ik aan mijn ademhaling, hoe rustiger word ik. (ungrammatical in this meaning)
So: in hoe … hoe … clauses, keep subject + verb, not verb + subject.
Yes, you have some flexibility in the first clause. All of these are acceptable, with slightly different emphasis:
Hoe meer aandacht ik geef aan mijn ademhaling, hoe rustiger ik word.
– Neutral; focuses a bit on aandacht as the thing that increases.Hoe meer ik aandacht geef aan mijn ademhaling, hoe rustiger ik word.
– Slightly more focus on ik (what I do).Hoe meer aandacht ik aan mijn ademhaling geef, hoe rustiger ik word.
– A bit more “bookish”, but perfectly correct.
They all mean the same in practice: the more attention you give to your breathing, the calmer you become.
- worden = to become / to get (a change of state)
- zijn = to be (a state)
So:
- hoe rustiger ik word
= the calmer I become / the calmer I get
This matches the idea of change: as you give more attention, you become calmer.
You could grammatically say:
- Hoe meer aandacht ik geef aan mijn ademhaling, hoe rustiger ik ben.
but that sounds more like a description of a general correlation (“whenever I give more attention, I am calmer”) rather than a gradual process. worden fits the idea of a gradual calming down much better, which is why it’s the natural choice here.
rustig is a regular, relatively short adjective. In Dutch, such adjectives normally form the comparative with -er, not with meer:
- rustig → rustiger (calm → calmer)
- groot → groter (big → bigger)
- leuk → leuker (nice → nicer)
meer rustig is grammatically possible but sounds unusual here and is generally only used:
- for some longer adjectives: meer geïnteresseerd, meer georganiseerd
- for emphasis or style in special contexts.
In this sentence, the normal, idiomatic form is rustiger.
Aandacht geven aan is a fixed expression meaning to give attention to / to pay attention to something.
Structure:
- aandacht geven aan + noun
= to direct your attention to that noun
So:
- aandacht geven aan mijn ademhaling
= to pay attention to my breathing
Other natural options with aandacht:
- aandacht besteden aan mijn ademhaling (very close in meaning)
- op mijn ademhaling letten (more like “to watch / keep an eye on my breathing”)
But:
- ❌ aandacht geven naar – incorrect preposition here
- ❌ aandacht geven mijn ademhaling – you need aan
You can sometimes drop the aan + object if it’s obvious from context:
- Ik geef daar meer aandacht aan.
- Ik geef er meer aandacht aan.
But in your sentence, you need aan mijn ademhaling to say what the attention is directed to.
Yes, that is also possible:
- Ik geef mijn ademhaling aandacht.
Here, mijn ademhaling becomes the direct object, and aandacht is something like a second object (in practice, this sounds a bit more “composed” or stylistic).
Both are correct:
- Ik geef aandacht aan mijn ademhaling. (more common, neutral)
- Ik geef mijn ademhaling aandacht. (a bit more literary/marked)
In your comparative structure, you could also say:
- Hoe meer ik mijn ademhaling aandacht geef, hoe rustiger ik word.
This is also idiomatic.
- ademhaling = breathing as a process (the act of breathing)
- adem = breath (the air you breathe in and out; can also be a bit more concrete)
In mindfulness / yoga / meditation contexts, Dutch often uses:
- op je ademhaling letten
- aandacht geven aan je ademhaling
But adem is also possible:
- aandacht geven aan mijn adem
- op mijn adem letten
There is no big meaning difference here; ademhaling just sounds slightly more like the general process of breathing, which fits the context of paying consistent attention to it.
Yes, a comma is standard (and strongly recommended) between the two correlated parts:
- Hoe meer aandacht ik geef aan mijn ademhaling, hoe rustiger ik word.
This matches the pattern:
- Hoe X-er …, hoe Y-er …
Without the comma it’s harder to read and looks odd, even though spoken Dutch of course just has a pause. In writing, you should always put the comma between the two hoe-clauses.
Present tense of worden (to become) is:
- ik word
- jij / je wordt
- u wordt
- hij / zij / het wordt
- wij / jullie / zij worden
So:
- with ik (1st person singular), you do not add -t → ik word
- with je / jij / hij / zij / het, you do → je wordt, hij wordt
That’s why it is ik word rustiger, not ik wordt rustiger.