The more... the more...
In English, we say "the more... the more..." to show how one thing directly affects another. In Spanish, the most common way to express this correlation is with mientras más (or sometimes cuanto más).
| The more seeds we plant, the more abundant the harvest is. | Mientras más semillas sembramos, más abundante es la cosecha. |
| The more sun they receive, the bigger the leaves are. | Mientras más sol reciben, más grandes son las hojas. |
The less... the less...
Naturally, you can also use menos to say "the less". The structure remains exactly the same, and you can even mix and match más and menos depending on the logic of the sentence.
| The less moisture the soil has, the less abundant the wheat is. | Mientras menos humedad tiene la tierra, menos abundante es el trigo. |
Using "mayor" and "menor"
Instead of just using más and menos, you can use specific comparative words like mayor (greater/larger) or menor (lesser/smaller) as your second variable.
| The damper the vegetable garden is, the greater the size of the corn is. | Mientras más húmedo está el huerto, mayor es el tamaño del maíz. |
| The more fertilizer we use, the greater the amount of nutrients is. | Mientras más abono usamos, mayor es la cantidad de nutrientes. |
Comparisons in the past
This formula isn't limited to the present tense. You can use it to talk about ongoing patterns in the past by pairing it with the imperfect tense.
| The more fertilizer the farmer used, the more abundant the harvest was. | Mientras más abono usaba el campesino, más abundante era la cosecha. |
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