"the longer... the more... and the less"

[彭浩轩]

I'm looking for a Chinese grammatical construction that would approximate the English sentence construction "The more [something happens], the more [something else happens], and the less [something else happens]" as in the English sentence "The more days that pass here in China, the more complex my view of the country becomes, and the less able I feel to write or even formulate some clear-cut opinion of the country."

I can't seem to come up with something that isn't just a direct translation of the structure... which I'm sure would sound quite odd to Chinese ears.

Any ideas?

[Mugi]

Consider the construction 越...越...(越...)

Eg. 我越学习中文越感到它的复杂性. The more I study Chinese, the more I realize the complexity of the language.

(You can use a third 越 to add a third dimension.)

[彭浩轩]

Ah, yeah. 越 . Only, if I were to express "less" instead of more, ought I to write 越少 ?

[hbuchtel]

Cool example! It is hard to express the last "and the less..."

Just to throw this out there -

”我在中国呆的时间越长，就觉得它越复杂，越感到要对它制定一个比较明确的观点很难，更不用说写出来。“

Even though this is close to a "direct translation of the structure", I don't think it sounds *too* strange.

[creamyhorror]

Ah, yeah. 越 . Only, if I were to express "less" instead of more, ought I to write 越少 ?

Nope, that wouldn't be right grammatically. You would usually use a positive form, or 不. You could say something like 我住在中国越久，对中国的观点就(变得)越复杂、越难明确地表达。 (= The longer I live China, the more complex my view of the country becomes, and the harder it is to express it clearly.)

[彭浩轩]

Ah, thanks. I think I grasp the basic way the structure works. So, how about this for a translation of my example: "越长的时间我住在中国生活，越感到它的复杂性，越难能写还不能表示清晰的意见对于中国。" ... Or is that just a confusing mess? I'd like if someone could point out what errors there surely are in that sentence, as this is what I originally wrote.

[hbuchtel]

How about using 随着?

Something like “他对中国的看法随着他在华日数的增加而变得更复杂，更难对它制定明确的观点” yikes! :blink: