As…as possible” in Chinese

It's not immediately obvious how to say things like "as soon as possible" and "as fast as possible" in Mandarin, as there isn't a direct translation. The way to express it is actually to say "the more … the better". Pragmatically this is the same, and the structure is easy to use: 

越 [adj] 越好

This is the structure for "as … as possible" in Mandarin. You just say 越, an adjective and then 越好.

Some examples:

越*快*越好 Yuè kuài yuè hǎo As soon as possible

越*慢*越好 Yuè màn yuè hǎo As slowly as possible

越*贵*越好 Yuè guì yuè hǎo As expensive as possible

越*便宜*越好 Yuè piányi yuè hǎo As cheap as possible

越*多*越好 Yuè duō yuè hǎo As much as possible

This is a very general structure – pretty much any adjective you like can go in the slot. There is another structure that you can use with some specific adjectives, and it's even simpler still!

The structure is:

尽 [adj]

And it's as simple as that! Normally this is just used with the adjectives 早 and 快, and the meanings are pretty much the same:

尽早 Jǐnzǎo As soon as possible

尽快 Jǐnkuài As quickly as possible

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