Word
Più l'irrigazione è scarsa, più il campo soffre.
Meaning
The scarcer the irrigation is, the more the field suffers.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Più l'irrigazione è scarsa, più il campo soffre.
essere
to be
più
more / anymore (with 'non')
il campo
the field
soffrire
to suffer
Questions & Answers about Più l'irrigazione è scarsa, più il campo soffre.
Why doesn't Italian use a definite article before più, like English does with "the more"?
In English, we say "the more... the more...". In Italian correlative clauses of proportion, you never use a definite article. It is simply più... più... (or meno... meno...). Adding an article to make it il più would turn it into a relative superlative ("the most"), which is incorrect here.
Why is the word order Più l'irrigazione è scarsa rather than pulling the adjective to the front like in English ("The scarcer...")?
In English, the comparative adjective ("the scarcer") is pulled to the front right after "the". In Italian, più functions as an adverb opening the clause, and the rest of the sentence typically follows standard Italian word order: subject (l'irrigazione), verb (è), and then the adjective (scarsa).
Both verbs here (è and soffre) are in the indicative mood. Do più ... più ... constructions ever require the subjunctive?
The più ... più ... structure itself does not trigger the subjunctive. Because this sentence states a factual, proportional reality, the indicative is the correct mood. You would only use the subjunctive if the broader sentence introduced doubt or a subjective opinion, such as if you started the whole sentence with Penso che (I think that).
Could we use peggio instead of più in the second clause to say "the worse the field suffers"?