« il y a encore dix minutes » versus « il y a déjà dix minutes »

Question

I came up with two example sentences, using « encore » in one and « déjà » in the other. Do I correctly understand their meanings?

1 : Albert est passé par ici il y a encore dix minutes. Tu pourras le rattraper si tu te hâtes.

I used « encore » with the meaning of "just" for emphasis. The sentence can be paraphrased as:

1+ : Albert vient tout juste de passer par ici il n'y a que dix minutes.

On the other hand, I placed « déjà » here to express the idea of "ten (long) minutes ago" – for the sake of emphasis again.

2 : Albert est passé par ici il y a déjà dix minutes. Tu ne risques pas de le rattraper.

I think the use of "encore" in this kind of sentences is kind of tricky... I'm personnaly not sure of it's exact meaning in your sentence number one... I would only understand what you meant by hearing the second part "Tu pourras le rattraper". At work, we use to say "dans le doute, reboot", but here, I would say "dans le doute, trouve un autre moyen", even if the rhyme disappears... ;) — Random, Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 18:52
@Random How do you feel about saying "il y a seulement dix minutes" or "il n'y a que dix minutes"? Merci. — Con-gras-tue-les-chiens, Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 19:26
This might/might not have anything to do with why it's being said that "encore" doesn't seem to work in this case, but I've noticed that "il y a déjà" in the "already" sense is often found following the passé composé whereas "il y a encore" in the "until just a few" sense is often used following the imparfait and/or states of being [where, perhaps coincidentally, you could fit "encore" directly after the verb instead] (Albert passait [encore] par ici/était [encore] ici/ il y a [encore] dix minutes.) — Papa Poule, Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 23:22

jlliagre · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-17 18:44:16Z

2

In the first sentence, using juste or à peine instead of encore would be clearer.

Albert est passé par ici il y a juste dix minutes. Tu pourras le rattraper si tu te hâtes.

The second sentence is fine and match your goal.

answered Oct 17, 2016 at 18:44

jlliagre

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"tout juste" may be a good one too !
– Random
Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 18:44
A native French speaker in my office tends to use « encore » in this exact fashion. So it has rubbed off on me, ha-ha. Merci.
– Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 19:02
Encore is not to be completely ruled out. Il y a encore dix minutes, Albert est passé par ici is idiomatic French, like the more usual il était encore là il y a dix minutes.
– jlliagre
Commented Oct 18, 2016 at 7:26
@jlliagre Indeed, "encore là" sounds much more natural to me than "encore dix minutes"
– Random
Commented Oct 18, 2016 at 7:33
1

@LUNA The construction is correct and idiomatic. Juste means precisely here while même pas dix minutes is "not even ten minutes ago".
– jlliagre
Commented Oct 19, 2016 at 7:06

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