Joellefan

It means that it's very long to finish.

The_FD

You could be right Yau

plus can mean more or none... which are totally opposite
what makes french so wonderful... and difficult
you have to find out the meaning depending on the context... or if spoken you may hear a difference

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Yau

Wow! More is none and none is more. It seems like a thought of buddha. And I now try to remember the whole phrase "a plus finir" to avoid any confusion.

It's my first attempt to learn french vocab and expressions from paroles de chansons. Thanks for all being so helpful to me. I really enjoy it!

MikeL

Just in case it's of any interest...
The apparent contradiction of words like "plus" having both an affirmative and negative meaning is explained historically by the development of expressions of negation in Old French.
In Latin, the normal word of negation was "non": e.g. non video: I don't see; it remains the same in modern Italian (non vedo) , and almost the same in Spanish (no veo). In French it became confined to the single-word answer to a yes/no question, but in verb phrases a different system evolved, based on the Latin negative "ne" as found in "ne Caesar quidem" not even Caesar. The ne was combined with other words which by themselves did not have a negative meaning, such as "passum" - a step, to give expressions like (ego) ne vado passum: literally "I don't go a step", which became je ne vais pas. There were a whole lot of these negative expressions, each one appropriate for a particular type of verb: e.g. ne... mica not a crumb, ne...punctum: not a point, and it was natural to extend this further to ideas of time such as ne...iammagis which became ne...jamais, and ne...plus. Eventually the second element came to be seen as the more important, so that the idea of negation was transferred from the "ne" to the "pas" or the "plus", as shown by the fact that in modern spoken French the "ne" is often omitted. Consequently "pas", "plus", "jamais" etc. do not require the "ne" to give them their negative meaning, and can be used in expressions such as "pas moi", "jamais le dimanche", etc. without a verb. In the case of "plus", this inevitably led to confusion because it continued to have its old positive meaning of "more" in many contexts. "Plus d'argent" can technically mean both "more money" and "no more money". In modern spoken French it would almost always be understood as "no more money" because the word "davantage' has taken over from plus in the sense of "more".

Is anyone still awake?

Lavie

J'ajouterais que la prononciation peut différer, j'ignore si c'est systématique (mais je crois que oui) :
j'en veux plus (prononcez "plusse")(positif)[J'en veux d'autres]
et
j'en veux plus (prononcez "plu") (négatif)[Je n'en veux pas d'autres].

Donc le "plus" dans "à plus finir" est négatif puisque prononcé "plu".

MikeL

Merci, Lavie. Oui, effectivement dans la langue parlée la prononciation indique les deux sens différents; mais j'ai l'impression que c'est une évolution assez récente.

The_FD

ReSalut tout le monde

Oui Lavie je confirme que la différence ce prononciation est systématique, mais récente, mes grands parents ne font pas toujours cette distinction
je pense que c'est à cause de la récente disparition dans la phrase négative du "n'" qui marque la vraie négation... c'est bien sûr un abus de langage

and your explanation is nice Mike... maybe i am intersted in french history because it is my language

__________________
L'histoire de la famille Bourdillon
Les fêtes d'Hébé
The flying dancer dancing