Expressing "more and more" with "yuelaiyue"

"越 ... 越..." (yuè ... yuè ...) is used frequently in Chinese to express that something is becoming more and more adjective over time, with the latter adjective changing with the verb. The most common structure is:

Subject + 越来 + 越 + Adjective

This expresses that the subject is becoming more and more adjective as time goes on.

Here are some examples:

• 汽油 越 来 越 贵。
• 美国 的 音乐 越 来 越 流行。
• 她 的 数学 成绩 越 来 越 好。

This structure can be expanded further by replacing 来 with another verb. This expresses that a change causes another change.

Subject + 越 + Verb Phrase + 越 + Adjective

Here are some examples of this structure:

• 他 越 喝 可口可乐 越 胖。
• 她 越 说话 越 舒服。
• 啊，我 越 忙 越 做 错 了。

Sources and further reading

Books

• Common Chinese Patterns 330 (NEEDS AMAZON AFFILIATE LINK)
• Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Reader (NEEDS AMAZON AFFILIATE LINK)