Double Comparative Sentences

This is a double comparative sentence:
The harder I study, the higher my score.
Meaning:

You can understand this sentence like a conditional:

If / When I study harder, I get a higher score.
Grammar:

A double comparative sentence has two parts.
Both parts have a comparative structure (eg harder / higher).
Before the comparatives, the is used (the harder / the higher).
The two parts have a comma betweeen them.

The harder I study, the higher my score.

Here are some more examples:

a) The faster you live, the further you fall.
b) Sometimes it seems as though the more I learn, the less I know.
c) The more quickly we learn, the less we remember.
d) The greater the number of people living in a city, the higher the rate of crime.
e) Fact: the more people, the more crime, it’s simple.
f) Of course, the more important the exam, the more he used to study, but he never studied much.
g) In general, the more lesson time a student wastes during the year,
the lower his/her profficiency mark will be at the end.

Double Comparative Sentences – Practice

EXCERCISE B - FILL the gaps in the paragragh below with these words:




Business administration involves some basic economics, which can be quite complicated. Indeed, it sometimes seems that the ........................(1) you try to understand economics, the ........................(2) difficult it gets. Everything is connected and ........................(3) you change one thing, that affects another, which affects another, and so on. ........................(4) more changes that are made, the more complex ........................(5) calculations that need to be made, and, in fact, the more unpredictable .......................(6) results. Take, for instance, the example of a company manager who wants to change a product to save money. Let’s say the product is ice-cream and the manager wants to sell it in 400ml instead of half kilo containers. Obviously, ........................(7) the cost per item is the same, ........................(8) the profit is greater, because the ........................(9) the ammount of ice-cream sold per lira, the higher the income per litre for the company. However, the cost of the containers has to be considered also, because the ........................(10) the number of containers necessary per unit volume of ice-cream, the higher the ........................(11) also. Furthermore, for the transportation of the ice-cream, the more ........................(12), the more ........................(13) and space, and so also the more fuel, etc. Also, it might be necessaary to spend ........................(14) money on advertising. This involves .......................(15) costs, and of course, the more that is spent on such extra costs, the ........................(16) the final profit.

EXCERCISE C - FILL the gaps with a suitable word.

I used to think that the ....................(1) I studied, the more I would know, but actually what I found was that the harder I .....................(2) , the .....................(3) I realised that I didn’t know! Instead of feeling that I was getting cleverer, it seemed like .....................(4) more I studied the .....................(5) my ignorance! Basically, I was finding out how much I didn’t know! In fact, I felt that the more ....................(6) I studied, the .....................(7) I really knew! So, the more .....................(8) , .....................(9) less .....................(10) .

EXCERCISE D - CHANGE these sentences to double comparative sentices
(change the grammar but keep the meaning the same).

1) If you want to live longer, you should take care of your health.

.............................................................................................................................................

2) When a person works too quickly, s/he makes mistakes, and working more quickly leads to even more mistakes.

.............................................................................................................................................

3) I find that if I work slowly I am more careful and I don’t make so many mistakes.

.............................................................................................................................................



KEY: A a-2 b-3 c-6 d-4 e-1 f-8 g-5
B 1.harder 2.more 3.if 4.the 5.the 6.the 7.if 8.then 9.less 10.greater 11.cost 12.containers 13.weight 14.some 15.many 16.less
C 1.more/harder 2.studied/worked 3.more 4.the 5. greater ( more?) 6.seriously... 7.less 8.work... 9.the 10. knowledge...
D 1.The longer you want to live, the greater care you should take ofyour health.
2. The more quickly a person works, the more mistakes s/he makes
3.I find that the more slowly and carefully I work, the fewer (!) mistakes I make.