Learn Spanish (Spain): Cuanto más grande es el cebo, mejor es la captura. - The bigger the bait is, the better the catch is.

Cuanto más grande es el cebo, mejor es la captura.

The bigger the bait is, the better the catch is.

Breakdown of Cuanto más grande es el cebo, mejor es la captura.

more; else (anything else, nobody else)

mejor

better; best (the best)

Questions & Answers about Cuanto más grande es el cebo, mejor es la captura.

Why doesn't cuanto change its ending here?

In this sentence, cuanto is working with the adjective grande (big), so it acts as an adverb and stays exactly as cuanto. It only changes endings to match a noun, for example, cuanta más sopa (the more soup).

Where is the second más in this sentence? I thought the structure was cuanto más... más...

The second más is hidden inside the word mejor (better). Because mejor is the irregular comparative form of bueno (good), it already means "more good". Saying más mejor would be like saying "more better" in English!

Why is the verb es placed before el cebo and la captura?

In this type of comparison, Spanish strongly prefers to put the verb right after the comparative phrase (cuanto más grande and mejor). Putting the subject first, like cuanto más grande el cebo es, sounds very unnatural to a native speaker.

Does grande need to match the gender of el cebo?

Grande is an adjective that ends in "-e", meaning it has the same form for both masculine and feminine nouns. However, if the subject were plural, like los cebos (the baits), you would need to make it plural too: Cuanto más grandes son los cebos...