# FR: encore - place de l'adverbe



## senorcobra

Hello, I would like to know the correct adverb placement for the word "encore," when there are two verbs.

Example:
We can play again

On peut encore jouer? or
On peut jouer encore?

*Moderator note: *multiple threads merged to create this one


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## Angle O'Phial

On peut encore jouer ? => Can we still play?
On peut jouer encore ? => Can we play again?


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## temple09

I am trying to find out the flexibility there is in sentence structure containing the word "encore" when it is to mean "again".
In English the word order can be quite flexible, depending on where you want to put the emphasis. For example -
"I have failed my license (once) again"
"Again I have failed my license"
"I have again failed my license"
Whilst the first example is the most common, the other two can be used also, especially in oral.
So, is there any flexibility in the following -
"J'ai encore loupé mon permis"
And if so, does it have any implication on the meaning?

So does this imply that "J'ai encore loupé mon permis" actually means "I have still failed my license" rather than "I have failed my license again"?
Hence, to say I have failed my license again I should say -
"J'ai loupé encore mon permis"


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## jann

_J'ai encore loupé mon permis_
You can also say _J'ai loupé mon permis encore une fois. _
 --> I failed, I've failed my license exam (yet, once) again.  
("I 'still' failed my license" doesn't mean really anything, after all. )

_J'ai loupé encore mon permis_
--> this doesn't sound natural.  
If you change _mon_ to _un_ then it would be natural, but the meaning would change to "I've failed yet another licensing exam," implying that you have tried for several different _permis_ (as opposed to several attempts at the same one).


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## temple09

Thank you for your help. Ironically I found this sentence on a computer programme which provides sentences in order to teach correct grammar. And, by the sound of it, if "J'ai encore loupé mon permis" is not a proper sentence, then I am now starting to doubt everything else that I have learned :-(


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## jann

> And, by the sound of it, if "J'ai encore loupé mon permis" is not a  proper sentence, then I am now starting to doubt everything else that I  have learned


But _"J'ai encore loupé mon permis"_* is *a proper sentence!  It is familiar (because of the verb _louper_), but perfectly correct and current.  What in the posts above made you think that it wasn't ok?


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## temple09

Because Angle O' Phial translated senor cobra's suggestions as follows -
"On peut encore jouer ? => Can we still play?"

While Jann wrote -
"("I 'still' failed my license" doesn't mean really anything, after all. )"

They are the same sentence construction: Subject (J')/(On)+verb(ai)/(peut)+encore+verb(loupé)/(joeur)   [+subject(mon permis)}

Since they are of the same sentence construction then I assumed that to put encore in this section of the sentence means "still" and that Jann is saying that this would not be appropriate.

I am so sorry, but I really am quite confused by this. :-(


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## jann

Ok, I see. 

Let's just think about English for the moment.  What does it means when you say, "Can we still play?"  It's not hard to think of different situations where this would be a perfectly logical and natural question. It used to be ok/possible for you to play together, and you want to know if it will continue to be ok/possible.  You can substitute "continue to" for "still" in this sentence because they mean the same thing.  Let's call this idea (1).

But in English, what would it mean if you said, "I still failed my exam"?  The idea that you used to fail your exam and that you "continue to" fail it is illogical.  Let's call this strange thought idea (2).  Failing a particular exam happens at a single point in time, so the continuous idea of "still" doesn't apply.  I can't think of a situation where it would make sense.  This sentence might have the same structure as the one in idea (1), but it doesn't work out quite the same -- we can't use "still" to mean "continue to" in this context.

If you took the exam several times and failed it each time, then this is several repeated instances that happened at particular points in time, and if we want to talk about any one of those repeated failures, we will say in English "I failed my exam again" (not using the word "still"). Let's call this idea (3)

If you are thinking of a sentence such as, "I studied every day for  weeks, but I still failed my exam," then this is a totally different  meaning and way of using "still."  You could substitute "anyway" or  "none-the-less."  It has nothing to do with continuity and is very different from the ideas of "continue to" and "again" that we saw in the previous examples.    Let's call this idea (4).

Now let's talk about French.

The French word _encore_ is for conveying ideas about continuity  and repetition, the way we use "still," "(yet) again," and "always" in  English. Therefore it can be used to convey ideas (1) and (3). Therefore you can use _encore_ for both _"On peut encore jouer ?" _(=Can we still play?) and _"J'ai encore loupé mon permis_" (=I failed my license exam again).

However, you cannot use _encore_ to express idea (4).  Perhaps this is why you are confused?  This kind of "still" which means "anyway" or "none-the-less" is translated with an expression like_ quand même_.

Finally, when I say that "I still failed my exam" doesn't make sense as a sentence by itself, I am referring to idea (2)... which is no more logical in French than it is in English.

Does that help?


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## earthmerlin

Bonjour. My question pertains to the placement of 'encore' in sentences such as 'He's still working' or 'She's still sleeping'--does it come before or after the verb (or doesn't it matter)? For example, is 'Il travaille encore' or 'Il encore travaille'? Merci d'avance.


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## SwissPete

'Il travaille encore' 
or 
'Il encore travaille' 

The same with 'toujours'.


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## apprenantdufrançais

Selon  un livre de grammaire que j'ai lu, en français , on ne peut glisser rien entre le sujet et le verber, c'est pour cela que *encore* se place à la fin de la phrase.


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## Mariquilla81

Bonjour,

J´ai besoin que vous me jetiez un coup de main, s´il vous-plaît.

J´ai lu que, quand l´adverbe "encore" est placé en début de phrase, il faut faire l´inversion. Par exemple:, encore est-il une personne adorable. Est-ce correct de dire encore il est une personne adorable?

Merci d´avance


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## SwissPete

Encore est-il une personne adorable. 

Encore il est une personne adorable.


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## yuechu

Are both of these sentences correct :
"Je suis presque certain que nous n'avons pas encore officiellement signé le contrat."
"Je suis presque certain que nous n'avons pas officiellement signé le contract encore" ?

Merci d'avance !


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## olivier68

Bonjour Yuechu,

Proposal 1 is correct and corresponds to your English sentence.

Proposal 2 is rather incorrect. However, although not corresponding to your initial sentence, it could be understood as:
"Je suis presque certain que nous n'avons pas officiellement signé le contrat _une nouvelle fois_"


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## yuechu

Ah, c'est bon à savoir. Merci beaucoup, olivier681 !


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## AH92

Bonjour !

Does the position of _encore_ in a sentence make a difference? For example,

Mon chat - celui que vous avez vu hier - a encore attrapé une souris.
Mon chat - celui que vous avez vu hier - a attrapé encore une souris.

Do they both mean _My cat - the one you saw yesterday - caught another mouse._?

Merci d'avance !


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## olivier68

Hi AH92,

Oui, la position d'un adverbe est importante. En général, il se place AVANT le terme à modifier.
Dans votre exemple, ce n'est pas si simple. Voulez-vous insister sur le fait que le chat _a une nouvelle fois réussi _à attraper quelque chose, ou voulez-vous insister sur le fait que cette chose soit, _à nouveau, une souris _?


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## Lacuzon

Bonsoir,

Both mean the same thing. However, the second one sounds a little weird.


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## AH92

Do you mean that in the first sentence the speaker is emphasizing that the cat has done it again, while in the second he's saying the cat caught another mouse?


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## Maître Capello

You could make that nuance, but the second sentence does sound strange as suggested by Lacuzon. In standard language (neither literary nor poetic), adverbs modifying verbs are indeed normally placed right after the conjugated part of the verb. Thus with compound tenses, adverbs should be typically placed right after the auxiliary and hence before the past participle (here: _a *encore* attrapé_).

_Mon chat a *encore* attrapé une souris._  (standard)
_Mon chat a attrapé *encore* une souris._  (not wrong, but unusual)


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## AH92

Merci !


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