adverbial N2 common casualpolitewritten

ますます — increasingly

ますます

Meaning

Implies the trend was already in motion and is now accelerating — it builds on an existing direction rather than starting one.

Key sentence

The rain has been getting stronger and stronger.

Examples

His popularity keeps climbing higher and higher.
With advances in technology, life has become more and more convenient.

Easily confused with

一層 一層いっそう is a touch more formal 'even more so' and often marks a deliberate step up; ますます stresses an ongoing trend snowballing on its own. さらに さらに adds a further increment ('furthermore / even more'); ますます specifically says an existing tendency is intensifying.

See ますます in real sentences

Jengo shows ますます the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.

Study it in Jengo

Sources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar.

← Back to the grammar tree