Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Quanto più… tanto più…

"Una montagna è come l'istruzione, quanto più alta l'ascesa, tanto più esteso il panorama" quote by Dr. Christiaan Barnard by Alex for didattichiamo

Can you translate the above quote in English?  Use the following mini-dictionary as a reference, if necessary:

Sostantivi-Nouns
la montagna - mountain
l'istruzione (f.)- instruction, education, learning
l'ascesa - ascent
il panorama - panorama, view

Aggettivi-Adjectives
alto - high
esteso - extended, extensive, widespread

Avverbi-Adverbs
come - like

Highlight below to see my attempt:

A mountain is like education: the higher the ascent, the even more extensive the view.


A good reason to keep climbing, no?



In the name of keeping with the "ascent", let's look at one of the special constructions used in the quote:



As you can see, this expression is pretty close, but cannot be translated word for word from Italian to English or viceversa.  Now that you know the construction, however, it's easy to use it any number of sentences.  Here's one of my own:

Quanto più diventi grande, tanto più vorrai essere piccolo.
The bigger* you get, the more you'll wish you were small.

*Note that for some adjectives in English, we cannot say "the more ___" but instead must say "the ___er", as in: the more big  "the bigger"


Here's another from an Arthur Schopenhaeur quote:


La ricchezza assomiglia all'acqua di mare:
Wealth is like sea water:

quanto più se ne beve, tanto più si ha sete.
the more we drink, the thirstier we become.


We could say a similar thing of learning:

Quanto più si impara, tanto più si ha voglia di imparare.
The more one learns, the more one wants to learn.

What do you think? Can you come up with or find any sentences in Italian that use this form?  Comment below!



Happy climbing!
-Alex

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