Grammar
-(으)ㄹ수록
Meaning
Intermediate-(eu)lsurok
Used between two clauses to mean 'the more... the more...' — as the first thing increases or changes, the second follows along with it.
Form
Attach -ㄹ수록 to a stem ending in a vowel and -을수록 to a stem ending in a consonant: 가다 → 갈수록, 먹다 → 먹을수록, 춥다 → 추울수록 (a ㅂ-irregular). Stems ending in ㄹ take the ending with no extra ㄹ: 살다 → 살수록. It works with both verbs and adjectives, and it is written as one word with no space before 수록. The pattern is often doubled with -(으)면 in front for emphasis: 보면 볼수록 ('the more you look'). Tense endings like -았/었- do not go before it — put the tense on the final verb of the sentence instead.
Examples
날씨가 추울수록 옷을 더 많이 입습니다.
The colder the weather gets, the more clothes I wear.
한국어는 공부할수록 재미있습니다.
The more you study Korean, the more interesting it is.
값이 쌀수록 손님이 많아집니다.
The cheaper it is, the more customers there are.
시간이 지날수록 사람이 줄었습니다.
As time went by, the number of people decreased.
Common mistakes & nuance
The word 더 ('more') is often added in the second clause to make the increase explicit, but it is not required. A common mistake is writing a past tense before the ending — 추웠을수록 is wrong; keep the first clause plain (추울수록) and mark the past on the final verb. Note also that this is a change spread over a scale, so it does not fit a one-off event: for that use -(으)면 ('if').
Similar grammar
- -에 따라
-에 따라 says the result varies depending on some noun (지역에 따라 다르다, 'it differs by region') without saying in which direction. -(으)ㄹ수록 states the direction: as one side goes up, so does the other.
- -(으)면
-(으)면 sets up a single condition: if this happens, that happens. -(으)ㄹ수록 is not a condition at all but a scale — it says the second clause keeps changing as the first one does, which is why 보면 볼수록 stacks both.