Proportionalsätze – je...desto und umso

How the rule begins

Proportional clauses express the idea that two things grow or shrink together, in the same direction — "the more X, the more Y". In English we use "the more...the more", "the bigger...the better". In German we use je...desto or je...umso, and Bruno 🐻 warns: there's one specific word-order rule that trips up nearly every learner. Master it and your B1 written German jumps a level.

The rest of the explanation, the examples and the exercises are in the full lesson.