ば～程(ほど)The more…the more

The conditional part of the structure is sometimes omitted. この豆を食べれば食べるほど痩せるらしい。→ この豆を食べるほど痩せるらしい。

Structure

（Verb［ば］）+ Verb ［る］^(*) + ほど
（［い］Adjective［ば］）+ ［い］Adjective^(*) + ほど

（［な］Adjective + なら（ば））+ ［な］Adjective^(*) + な + ほど
（［な］Adjective + であれば）+ である + ほど

（Noun + なら（ば））+ Noun^(*) + ほど
（Noun + であれば）+ である + ほど

^(*) The same Adjective, Verb or Noun has to be repeated

Details

About ば〜ほど

ば～ほど is a combination of the conjunction particle ば, and the noun ほど. It is used in a similar way to 'the more ~ the more' in English. Literally, it just highlights that 'if it is (A), then the limit of (A) will be controlled only by its extent'.

To use ば～ほど, ば will be paired with the hypothetical form of any verb/い-Adjective (or noun/な-Adjective with なら on the end), before the same word will be repeated in its attributive form. After this, a (B) part of the sentence will highlight what the expected result of (A) is.

As である (the formal version of だ) may replace な with な-Adjectives (or なら with nouns), sometimes である will be used instead of な/なら, in regard to both nouns and な-Adjectives.

Caution

When this expression is used with する verbs, the noun that する is linked to in the ば part of the sentence does not need to be repeated in the ほど part.

漢字(かんじ)の勉強(べんきょう)をすればするほど色(いろ)んな本(ほん)が読(よ)めるようになる。

The more you study kanji, the more you will be able to read various books.
掃除(そうじ)をすればするほど、部屋(へや)が綺麗(きれい)になっていく。

The more you clean, the cleaner your room will get.

Fun Fact

Sometimes, the ば 'hypothetical' part of the sentence will be omitted altogether, leaving ほど to perform a similar function by itself.

身体(からだ)を鍛(きた)えるほど、身体(からだ)が強(つよ)くなる。

The more you workout, the stronger your body gets.

Examples

--:--

この豆(まめ)を食(た)べれば食(た)べるほど痩(や)せるらしい。

I hear that the more of these beans you eat the thinner you will become.

早(はや)ければ早(はや)い程(ほど)いい。

The sooner the better.

綺麗(きれい)ならば綺麗(きれい)なほど見(み)続(つづ)けたくなる。

The more beautiful it is, the more I want to continue looking at it.

勝(か)てば勝(か)つほど、またやりたくなる。

The more you win, the more you want to play again.

勉強(べんきょう)すればする程(ほど)、日本語(にほんご)が上手(うま)くなる。

The more you study, the better you will be at Japanese.

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ば〜ほど – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (20 in total)

mrnoone

English translation:
the more… the more

Structure:
Verb[ ば ] + Verb・ほど
いAdj[ ば ] + いAdj・ほど
Noun・であれば + Noun・ほど
なAdj・ならば + なAdj + な・ほど

View on Bunpro
Daru
There’s an entry on this grammar point on A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar, page 6. It’s written as ~ba ~hodo.

I can provide the screenshots or a transcription as needed. I think it’d be good to add it!
mrnoone
Added!

Thanks
Johnathan-Weir
According to this video:

Noun・であれば + Noun・ほど

Can be reduced to just:

Noun・ほど

Also, you can substitute なら for ならば in

なAdj・ならば + なAdj + な・ほど
Pettchanashi
Hi, I just came across the the sentence 「綺麗ならば綺麗なほど見続けたくなる」. I tried writing it as 「綺麗なら綺麗なほど見続けたくなる」 without adding the「ば」after 「なら」but my answer was graded incorrect. I’m not sure if I’m understanding it right but wouldn’t that be correct as well?
mrnoone
@Pettchanashi
Hey

You are absolutely right! I have added the answer.

Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for the feedback,
Cheers
username2
Hello,
I just found this Tae Kim article precisely for this set pattern: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/more_amounts#Using_and_together - guess it’d be nice to add it in the readings list as well.
mrnoone
@username2
Hey and welcome on the community forums

I have added it, now there are two links to Tae Kim website

Thank you very much and Cheers!

PS
Super cute avatar
daniellacda
Hi！According to Shin Kanzen Master N3, adjectives can take the forms as well:

なadj ＋な＋ほど：町がにぎやかなほど商店ではものがよくうれるのだ。
いadj ＋noun ＋ほど：忙しい人ほど時間の使い方がじょうずだ。
mrnoone

daniellacda:

町がにぎやかなほど商店ではものがよくうれる

Hey
You are right, the conditional part (ば・なら) can be omitted, I have added information about that to the grammar point.

Thank you and cheers
Ochamame
Not a question, but this is in Minna no Nihongo II, chapter 35 (page 62 in the grammar/English translations book), for anybody interested.
(the 1998 edition)
Yryrdz
Is it possible to change "ほど” in this, to say, "ぐらい”, or to use another conditional instead of “ば”？ I understand what the set phrase means and how to use it, but I don’t really understand exactly how it works. It doesn’t really bother me, I’m just curious。
gyroninja

Yryrdz:

Is it possible to change "ほど” in this, to say, "ぐらい”

No, you can’t use くらい.

Yryrdz:

or to use another conditional instead of “ば”

You can also use たら.
Yryrdz
I feel like a fool because I absolutely did skip over that whenever I first learned this point. Sorry about that, I feel like usually I’m able to remember to do that. It’s good to know that I can also use たら、thank you.
itoen90
instead of ば one can use たらright? For example 広ければ広いほどいい。->広かったら広いほどいい。Or is that only a Kansai thing?
CroAniki
I can’t seem to wrap my head around the “translation” of this grammar point.
When learning a new point, I tend to look at the “literal translation” of it as it helps me understand what the original meaning/feel of it when used in a sentence is, before memorising it as the english “localisation” if you will.

I’m struggling with this one.
Best transliteration I found so far was Tae Kim’s:

" 韓国料理は食べれば食べるほど、おいしくなる。
About Korean food, the more you eat the tastier it becomes.

The literal translation is, “About Korean food, if you eat, to the extent that you eat, it becomes tasty.” "

Anyone got similar example translations or alternative angles to look at the grammar point?
nekoyama

CroAniki:

About Korean food, if you eat, to the extent that you eat, it becomes tasty

I think word-for-word translations sometimes add more problems than they solve. For a proper translation, you have to read the source material, understand it, and re-phrase it in the target language. A word-for-word translation basically defers the “understand” step and then you have understand the English words, but because they’re English and not Japanese, they sometimes don’t have the exact same meaning, and sometimes the grammar doesn’t work out at all and just becomes misleading, and sometimes you just forget that it’s not actually English and try to treat it ...
focamotivada
Hi everyone! I have a question regarding these two points:

（Noun + であ****れば ）+ である + ほど

And:

（［な］Adjective + であ****れば ）+ である + ほど

Am I missing something or there is no example sentences portraying this format? I don’t fully understand if it should be, for example, something along the lines of: 静かであればである程 OR if I’m missing something and it should be 静かであれば静かである程.

Can someone confirm if I need to repeat the noun/na adjective between であれば and である, please?
nekoyama
You can repeat it in the way that you did, but you don’t have to. If it’s not repeated it should be 静かであればあるほど without the で. The same applies to nouns too.
focamotivada
I see, thank you so much!! This makes more sense to me now.