Breakdown of Cuanto más usas la mascarilla por la noche, menos quebradizo está.
estar
to be (location/state)
usar
to use / to wear
la noche
the night
menos
to (telling time) / minus / less
más
more
la
the (feminine)
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
cuanto
all that / as much as (relative) / the more/less (in proportional comparisons)
la mascarilla
mask
quebradizo
brittle
por la noche
at night
Questions & Answers about Cuanto más usas la mascarilla por la noche, menos quebradizo está.
Why isn't there a word for "the" before cuanto más and menos?
In English, we say "The more... the less...". However, in Spanish, proportional comparatives do not use definite articles. You just start directly with cuanto más (or mientras más) and follow up with the second comparative word, like menos. Translating the "the" by saying el cuanto más would be grammatically incorrect.
Can I use mientras más instead of cuanto más in this sentence?
Why is quebradizo masculine if the sentence is talking about la mascarilla?
Quebradizo (brittle) does not describe the mask; it describes what the mask is treating, which is implied by context to be hair (el pelo or el cabello). Because the implied subject is a masculine noun, the adjective takes the masculine form.
Why use está instead of es with quebradizo?
We use está instead of es because the brittleness is being treated as a temporary physical state or condition that changes based on how much you use the mask. If you used es, it would imply the hair is permanently brittle by nature, regardless of the treatment.
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