The more… the more… (愈…愈…)

Structure 愈 + condition/action，愈 + result （or: 愈来愈 + adjective）

愈…愈… (yù… yù…) expresses a correlation of degree: the more the first thing happens, the more the second does. It is the literary, written variant of 越…越… (HSK 3), from which it scarcely differs in meaning: 愈想愈生气 = "the more I think about it, the angrier I get". It belongs to essays, longform journalism and polished prose, rarely to everyday speech. It also lives in fixed four-character phrases such as 愈挫愈勇 ("the harder you fall, the braver you get") and in the form 愈来愈… ("more and more…"), the cultured twin of 越来越….

Examples

形xíng势shì愈yù紧jǐn张zhāng，我wǒ们men愈yù要yào保bǎo持chí冷lěng静jìng。
The more tense the situation becomes, the more we must stay calm.
这zhè个ge问wèn题tí愈yù想xiǎng愈yù复fù杂zá。
The more you think about this problem, the more complicated it gets.
真zhēn正zhèng的de勇yǒng者zhě愈yù挫cuò愈yù勇yǒng，从cóng不bù退tuì缩suō。
The truly brave grow bolder the harder they are knocked down, and never flinch.
随suí着zhe年nián龄líng增zēng长zhǎng，他tā对duì故gù乡xiāng的de思sī念niàn愈yù来lái愈yù深shēn。
As he grows older, his longing for his homeland deepens more and more.

Levels are indicative: they follow the standard Chinese Grammar Wiki (AllSet Learning) progression, not an official HSK 3.0 mapping. We never assign levels by eye.

This point and the other 370, with audio on every example, inside Wanyu.