5

How to say in Korean sentences like :
-The less he eats, the less he drinks.
-The less he is fat, the less he is small.

-The less he eats, the more he drinks.
-The less he is fat, the more he is small.

-The more he eats, the less he drinks.
-The more he is fat, the less he is small.

-The more he eats, the more he drinks.
-The more he is fat, the more he is small.

3
  • At least in the "the more...the more" case, the clausal conjunction (으)ㄹ수록 can be used. I'm not sure, but maybe this can be used to express the "the less..the less" case by somehow negating the verbs? Anyways, it is a start. 그는 먹을수록 마신다. The more he eats, the more he drinks.
    – B. Alvn
    Feb 22, 2017 at 16:37
  • I ran this through Google and it seems to work: 그는 먹을수록 마시지 않다. The more he eats, the less he drinks. but that doesn't mean its right!! LOL ;-) Might be understandable at least....let's hope some others chime in on this though, ok?
    – B. Alvn
    Feb 22, 2017 at 16:39
  • Standard conditional statements are usually made with 으면 so you may have to use that to construct the other expressions. This should mean something like your first sentence, for example. 그는 덜 먹으면 덜 마신다. As for him, when less eat, less drink.
    – B. Alvn
    Feb 22, 2017 at 16:44

1 Answer 1

4

The more he eats, the less he drinks.

Above example would be translated to

그는 많이 먹을수록 더 적게 마신다.

I guess there are few other candidates that catch certain subtleties but that one seems most appropriate.

edit Clearly I didn't think this through when I posted the answer. Here is (what I think is) an even better translation:

그는 많이 먹으면 먹을수록 더 적게 마신다.

10
  • I think it's better to remove "그만큼". I think "그는 많이 먹을수록 그만큼 적게 마신다" would mean "The more he eats, the less he drinks by that amount" (for example, if he eats 500g more, he'll drink 500g less water): it's more specific than the original English sentence.
    – jick
    Feb 22, 2017 at 20:07
  • @jick That's true.. I was totally over-thinking this. Translation is not exactly my forte I guess haha Feb 22, 2017 at 20:26
  • @Posh_Pumpkin Judging by this answer, is it safe to assume it is possible to use (으)ㄹ수록 for all of OP's expressions? Also, how do the adverbs 적게 and 덜 compare with each other? That is, why did you use 적게 instead of 덜?
    – B. Alvn
    Feb 24, 2017 at 9:47
  • 1
    @B.Alvn Yes, pretty much the same form can be used all of his examples. Also as far as 적게 and 덜 goes, either works, really. To be honest I'm not sure which one is more grammatically correct if we want to be very technical here. Feb 24, 2017 at 10:24
  • @B.Alvn in fact I just changed 적게 to 더 적게 because I feel like the former doesn't make any grammatical sense. Feb 24, 2017 at 10:26

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.