Breakdown of Più un prodotto è biologico, più è caro.
essere
to be
un
a / an (masculine)
caro
expensive, dear
più
more / anymore (with 'non')
il prodotto
the product
biologico
organic
Questions & Answers about Più un prodotto è biologico, più è caro.
Why isn't there a translation for 'The' before 'more' in the Italian sentence?
In English, we use 'The more... the more...' for correlative clauses. In Italian, you never use the definite article for this structure. It is simply Più... più... (or Meno... meno...). Adding il before più here would be grammatically incorrect.
In English we say 'The more organic', but the Italian says Più un prodotto è biologico. Why are più and biologico separated?
In Italian, più acts as an adverb modifying the entire clause, so it sits at the very beginning of the phrase. This is followed by the normal sentence structure (subject + verb + adjective). You cannot group più directly with the adjective like we do in English, so you would never say Più biologico un prodotto è.
Biologico looks like 'biological'. Does it really mean 'organic'?
Yes! When talking about food, agriculture, or products in general, biologico is the standard Italian word for 'organic'. You will also often see it shortened to just bio on supermarket labels.
Why is there no word for 'it' in the second part (più è caro)?
Italian is a pro-drop language, meaning subject pronouns are usually omitted when the context makes them obvious. Since the subject of the first clause is un prodotto, it is perfectly clear that the second clause is still talking about that same product. You just say è caro rather than adding a clunky pronoun.
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