Question 1

Why do we use mientras más instead of el más for "the more"?

Accepted Answer

In English, you say "The more X, the more Y." But in Spanish, proportional comparisons use mientras más (or cuanto más) to show that two things increase together. You cannot translate "the more" literally as el más here, because el más actually means "the most."

Question 2

Mientras usually means "while." How does that make sense in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

You are right that mientras on its own means "while." In this specific grammar structure (mientras más... más...), it translates to "the more... the more...". If it helps, you can think of the literal meaning as "while more fertilizer was used, the more abundant the harvest was."

Question 3

Why are the verbs usaba and era in the imperfect past tense rather than the preterite?

Accepted Answer

The imperfect tense is used because it describes an ongoing or repeated situation in the past. The sentence talks about a continuous correlation over a period of time (regularly using fertilizer and regularly getting a good harvest), rather than a single, completed, one-time event.

Question 4

Why is the word order más abundante era la cosecha instead of más abundante la cosecha era?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish proportional comparisons, the subject (la cosecha) usually comes after the verb (era). English puts the subject before the verb in this structure ("the harvest was"), but Spanish prefers to keep the descriptive part (más abundante) and the verb (era) closely grouped together.

Mientras más abono usaba el campesino, más abundante era la cosecha.

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