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{I just said}: Il risque de vous encombrer plus que de vous être utile.

{instead of}: Il risque plus de vous encombrer que de vous être utile.

In addition to the question of where to place the "plus", I'm also curious about the nuances of meaning between the two.

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  • I'd put it in the second way and say there's no difference in meaning, just in naturalness, myself!
    – Luke Sawczak ♦
    Commented Aug 19, 2017 at 19:10
  • @LukeSawczak For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, I find the word order of the second version clumsy. My gut feeling tells me to say the phrase "il risque de" without any word inserted in between. Maybe in the first version, I see "plus que" as "plutôt que".
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Aug 19, 2017 at 19:28

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The second form feels more natural.

Il risque de vous encombrer plus que de vous être utile.

Il risque plus de vous encombrer que de vous être utile.

Imo if there is a slight difference it may be on the accentuated verb. In the first case "he" would be "bothering" and a little bit "useful", though you might have said:

Il risque de plus vous encombrer que de vous être utile.

In the second he "risks" to just be a pain.

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    Thanks. I've never seen the word order: "il risque de plus vous encombrer ...".
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Aug 19, 2017 at 19:36
  • 1. A more than B, 2. A instead of B
    – LEI
    Commented Aug 19, 2017 at 19:46
  • I find the first sentence odd. Correct, but a bit odd. After “SUBJECT VERB plus”, there is an expectation that what comes next is something that VERBs more than SUBJECT (“Il risque de vous encombrer plus que le précédent (qui était plus petit)”). Having something that is more than VERB is correct but awkward. @Alone-zee
    – Gilles 'SO nous est hostile'
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 18:33
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I don't think there is a difference in the meaning of both sentences.
The only difference is style, because "plus" is in the middle of the sentence (we use proposition for this case in French, I don't know if the literal translation "proposal" fits), and so it breaks the flow a little and the sentence seems a bit clumsy.
As a French myself, I see the first version far more used both in text and in speech. Second version is correct nonetheless.

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