« Il ne peut plus s'améliorer » has no « pas » ?
@vi
"elle ne parle pas" : "she doesn't speak"
"elle ne parle plus" : "she doesn't speak anymore"
"elle ne parle jamais" : "she never speaks"
"il n'y a pas de gâteau" : "there's no cake"
"il n'y a plus de gâteau" : "there's no more cake"
"il n'y a jamais de gâteau" : "there's never any cake"
"plus" means there was something, but not anymore.
@vi
Also, I forgot to say : often, native French speakers don't say the "ne" in "ne ... pas", "ne ... jamais", "ne ... plus", ... Which is sometimes really confusing for "ne ... plus", since "plus" can also mean "more"/'+'. Even for French speaker, since context does not always allow to understand the meaning of the sentence.
Example :
"Je ne veux plus de gâteau" : "I don't want cake anymore"
"Je veux plus de gâteau" : can either mean "I want more cake" or "I don't want cake anymore" (not 100% correct, but the speaker didn't say the "ne" in that case).
Shorter : "j'en veux plus".
@vi French speakers with some accents (like South of France) pronounce the 's' in "plus" meaning +/more, and don't pronounce it when it means "not anymore". If you want to be sure, you can always ask :
"Tu en veux pluSSE [wistle like a snake] or plus [don't pronounce the 's'] du tout"
(plus du tout = plus)
@vi
Tu en veux plus ou plus du tout ?
pronounced :
Tu en veux plUSSE ou plU du tout ?
@vi Hope that was not too confusing and was interesting.
If it's too much information, just remember that "ne ... plus" is "not anymore"/"no more".
@Seipas that's helpful, thanks
I learned about dropping the "ne" a few days ago and only using "pas", was sort of hoping that couldn't happen with "plus" as well but nothing is ever easy 😝