Proportional comparisons (чем ..., тем ...)

To express that two things change proportionally—like saying "the more you practice, the better you get"—Russian uses a paired conjunction: чем ..., тем ... (the ..., the ...).

This structure pairs two comparative adjectives or adverbs (like more, faster, or higher):

Чем + [comparative] ..., тем + [comparative] ...

The more difficult the task, the more interesting it is to solve it.
Чем сложнее задача, тем интереснее её решать.

If a clause relies on the verb "to be" in the present tense (like is or are), Russian routinely omits it.

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