Plus elle relit sa candidature, plus elle remarque de petites fautes.

The more she rereads her application, the more she notices small mistakes.

Breakdown of Plus elle relit sa candidature, plus elle remarque de petites fautes.

• elle: she
• petit: small
• plus: more
• la faute: the mistake
• remarquer: to notice
• sa: her
• relire: to reread
• la candidature: the application

Questions & Answers about Plus elle relit sa candidature, plus elle remarque de petites fautes.

Is plus ..., plus ... the French equivalent of the more ..., the more ...?

Yes. This is a very common French pattern for showing a parallel change:

Plus elle relit sa candidature, plus elle remarque de petites fautes.
= The more she rereads her application, the more she notices small mistakes.

The first part gives the changing factor, and the second part gives the result that increases along with it.

French also uses similar patterns like:

Moins ..., moins ... = the less ..., the less ...
Plus ..., moins ... = the more ..., the less ...

Why is there no le before plus? In English we say the more.

Because French does not use an article here. In this structure, you simply say plus.

So:

Plus elle relit..., plus elle remarque... is correct.

But:

Le plus elle relit... is incorrect.

This is one of those places where English and French build the idea differently. English uses the more, but French just uses plus.

Be careful not to confuse this with le plus, which means the most:

C’est le plus intéressant. = It’s the most interesting.

Why are both verbs in the present tense?

Because the sentence expresses a general relationship or general truth: whenever she rereads it more, she notices more mistakes.

French often uses the present tense for this kind of idea, just as English does:

The more she rereads it, the more she notices mistakes.

It is not talking about one single moment only; it is describing a pattern.

If you wanted to place the same idea clearly in the future, you could use future forms:

Plus elle relira sa candidature, plus elle remarquera de petites fautes.

So the present here is natural because it states a general rule.

What is relit? Why doesn’t it look like a regular verb form?

Relit is the third-person singular present form of relire, which means to reread.

Relire is built from lire (to read) plus the prefix re-.

Its present-tense forms are:

je relis
tu relis
il/elle relit
nous relisons
vous relisez
ils/elles relisent

So in your sentence, elle relit means she rereads or she reads over again.

It does not look like a regular -er verb because relire follows the pattern of lire, which is irregular.

Why is it sa candidature and not son candidature?

Because French possessive adjectives agree with the thing possessed, not with the owner.

Here, the possessed noun is candidature, which is feminine singular, so French uses sa:

sa candidature

Even though the owner is elle, that is not the reason for sa. The key point is that candidature is feminine.

Compare:

son dossier because dossier is masculine
sa candidature because candidature is feminine

One extra detail: before a vowel sound, French often uses son even with a feminine noun for easier pronunciation:

son amie = her friend

But that does not apply here, because candidature begins with a consonant sound.

Why is it de petites fautes instead of des petites fautes?

This is a very common rule in French: des usually becomes de before a plural adjective that comes before the noun.

So:

des fautes = some mistakes
but
de petites fautes = small mistakes

That is exactly what is happening here.

The adjective petites comes before fautes, so des changes to de.

This is standard French, especially in writing. So de petites fautes is the form learners should aim to use.

Why does petites come before fautes?

Because petit is one of the common adjectives that often comes before the noun in French.

A lot of short, very common adjectives of size, age, beauty, or goodness tend to go before the noun. Petit is one of them.

So:

de petites fautes sounds natural.

If the adjective were one that normally comes after the noun, the word order would be different:

des fautes graves = serious mistakes
des fautes mineures = minor mistakes

So this word order is not random; it follows a common adjective-placement pattern in French.

Do I really have to repeat elle in both parts of the sentence?

Yes. Each half is its own clause, so each one needs its own subject.

That is why French says:

Plus elle relit sa candidature, plus elle remarque de petites fautes.

You cannot normally drop the second elle and say:

Plus elle relit sa candidature, plus remarque...

That would be incorrect.

French usually requires an explicit subject with a finite verb, much more consistently than English does in some informal structures.

Is the comma important here?

Yes, it is the normal punctuation choice here.

The comma separates the two linked parts of the plus ..., plus ... structure and makes the sentence easier to read:

Plus elle relit sa candidature, plus elle remarque de petites fautes.

In standard writing, using the comma is natural and recommended.

How is plus pronounced in this sentence?

Here, plus means more, so the final sound is pronounced.

In other words, it is pronounced like pluss, not like the silent form you often hear in ne ... plus.

So in this sentence, both instances of plus are pronounced.

Also, because the next word is elle, speakers may link the sounds together in fluent speech. But the important learner point is this:

In plus ..., plus ... meaning the more ..., the more ..., the final sound of plus is pronounced.

Why does petites end in -es?

Because the adjective has to agree with fautes.

Fautes is feminine plural, so the adjective also becomes feminine plural:

petit → masculine singular
petite → feminine singular
petits → masculine plural
petites → feminine plural

Since the noun is fautes, the correct form is petites.

So in de petites fautes, both words show feminine plural agreement.