-(으)ㄹ수록

Build it

When to use it

Attachment is the standard rule with the ㄹ short form: 만들다 gives 만들수록. 수록 is written joined to the modifier, with no space.

The idiomatic pattern repeats the verb: 배우면 배울수록 재미있어요. The 면 copy is optional but very common, and leaving it out sounds flatter to a Korean ear.

Tense never appears in front. The relationship it describes is general, so the past goes on the final verb if it goes anywhere.

A few fixed expressions are worth learning whole: 갈수록 (increasingly, as time goes on), 시간이 갈수록, 많으면 많을수록 좋다.

How to attach it

In use

1. 한국어는 배우면 배울수록 재미있어요.

   The more you learn Korean, the more interesting it gets.

2. 사람이 많을수록 좋아요.

   The more people the better.

3. 시간이 갈수록 상황이 나아지고 있어요.

   The situation is improving as time goes on.

4. 직접 만들수록 실력이 늘어요.

   The more you make it yourself, the better you get.

5. 생각할수록 이상해요.

   The more I think about it, the stranger it seems.

6. 바쁜 사람일수록 시간 관리를 잘해요.

   The busier the person, the better they manage their time.

Compared with

• 점점

  점점 says something changes gradually on its own. -(으)ㄹ수록 ties the change to a cause that is also increasing.

  점점 재미있어져요. (it’s getting more fun)  /  배울수록 재미있어요. (the more you learn, the more fun)

• -(으)면

  -(으)면 sets a single condition; -(으)ㄹ수록 makes the condition a sliding scale. The doubled form uses both at once.

  배우면 재미있어요. (if you learn it, it’s fun)  /  배울수록 재미있어요. (the more you learn)

• 갈수록

  A frozen form meaning “increasingly, as time passes.” It works as an adverb on its own and is worth memorising as vocabulary.

  갈수록 어려워져요.  /  시간이 갈수록 좋아졌어요.

Watch out

• 직접 만들을수록 실력이 늘어요.

  직접 만들수록 실력이 늘어요.

  A stem ending in ㄹ already supplies it, as with 만들 거예요 and 만들 테니까.

• 한국어를 배웠을수록 재미있었어요.

  한국어를 배울수록 재미있었어요.

  -(으)ㄹ수록 never carries tense. The relationship is general; the past belongs on the final verb.

• 사람이 많을 수록 좋아요.

  사람이 많을수록 좋아요.

  수록 is written joined, unlike 수 있다 or 것 where the noun takes a space.

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