Learn Hardcore French: Marie est encore plus étonnée quand elle rencontre un touriste amoureux de la langue française. - Marie is even more amazed when she meets a tourist who is in love with the French language.

plus + adjective → more + adjective
- plus étonnée = more astonished
Adding encore before plus intensifies it:
- encore plus étonnée = even more astonished / even more surprised

So the pattern is:

encore plus + adjective = even more + adjective
- encore plus content = even happier
- encore plus fatigué = even more tired

Why does étonnée end in -ée instead of just étonné?

Because étonné / étonnée is an adjective that agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes.

Marie is grammatically feminine singular.
The base form is étonné (masculine singular).
To agree with a feminine singular subject, you add -e:
- masculine: étonné
- feminine: étonnée

If the subject were plural:

masculine plural: étonnés
feminine plural: étonnées

So:
Marie est étonnée. = Marie is astonished.
Les garçons sont étonnés. = The boys are astonished.
Les filles sont étonnées. = The girls are astonished.

Why is it quand elle rencontre and not quand elle rencontrera?

In French, you often use the present tense to talk about events in a story as if they are happening now. This is called the narrative (or historic) present.

Marie est encore plus étonnée quand elle rencontre un touriste…
→ This feels like a story being told in real time: Marie is even more surprised when she meets a tourist…

If you were talking about a future event, you would normally use the future after quand:

Quand elle rencontrera un touriste, elle sera étonnée.
= When she meets a tourist (in the future), she will be surprised.

In your sentence, it’s not about a future plan; it’s part of a narrative, so present tense rencontre fits naturally.

What’s the difference between rencontrer and other verbs like trouver or se rencontrer?

rencontrer quelqu’un = to meet someone (to come across / to run into / to meet by arrangement)
- Elle rencontre un touriste. = She meets a tourist.
trouver quelqu’un / quelque chose = to find someone/something (you were looking for them or you just come across them, but the focus is on the result of finding)
- Elle trouve un touriste dans la rue. = She finds a tourist in the street. (More “finds” than “meets”.)
se rencontrer = to meet each other (reflexive, reciprocal)
- Ils se rencontrent à Paris. = They meet each other in Paris.

In your sentence, rencontrer is correct because Marie meets a tourist (she alone meets him; it’s not talking about both of them mutually meeting each other).

In un touriste amoureux de la langue française, what does amoureux mean here?

Amoureux is an adjective that literally means “in love (with)”, but in this context it’s best understood as:

“passionate about”,
“a great lover of”, or
“deeply fond of”.

So un touriste amoureux de la langue française means:

a tourist who is in love with the French language
→ a tourist who loves / is passionate about the French language.

Grammatically:

amoureux agrees with touriste:
- masculine singular: amoureux
- feminine singular: amoureuse
- e.g. une touriste amoureuse de la langue française

Is touriste masculine or feminine? Why is it un touriste here?

Touriste can be either masculine or feminine, depending on the person:

un touriste = a male tourist
une touriste = a female tourist

In the sentence you have:

The writer chose un touriste, so we understand the tourist is male (or at least grammatically masculine).
If it were a female tourist, the sentence would be:
… quand elle rencontre une touriste amoureuse de la langue française.

Why do we say de la langue française and not just du français?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different style and nuance:

de la langue française = of the French language
- more formal, a bit more explicit
- highlights the idea of “the language” as a system
du français = of French
- more everyday, a little shorter and more casual

So you could say:

un touriste amoureux du français
un touriste amoureux de la langue française

Both are correct; de la langue française just sounds a bit more elevated / literary.

Why is it la langue française and not la française langue? What’s the rule for adjective position?

In French, most adjectives normally come after the noun they modify.

noun + adjective
- la langue française = the French language
- une maison blanche = a white house
- un livre intéressant = an interesting book

Only certain common adjectives (often about beauty, size, goodness, age, etc.) usually come before the noun, like:

un petit livre
une belle ville
un vieux film

But français / française (meaning “French”) usually comes after the noun:

la cuisine française
la littérature française
la langue française

What’s the function of de in amoureux de la langue française? Why not another preposition?

With the adjective amoureux, French normally uses the preposition de to introduce what you are “in love with”:

amoureux de quelqu’un = in love with someone
amoureux de quelque chose = in love with something

So:

amoureux de la langue française = in love with the French language

Other prepositions (like par) would be incorrect here:

✗ amoureux par la langue française → not idiomatic
✓ amoureux de la langue française → correct

How is rencontre formed, and what person/tense is it?

Rencontre here is:

the 3rd person singular of rencontrer
in the present tense

Conjugation of rencontrer (present):

je rencontre
tu rencontres
il/elle/on rencontre
nous rencontrons
vous rencontrez
ils/elles rencontrent

So elle rencontre = she meets / she is meeting.

Could we say Marie est plus étonnée encore instead of encore plus étonnée? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say Marie est plus étonnée encore, and it is grammatically correct, but:

encore plus étonnée is the most common, neutral modern word order.
plus étonnée encore sounds a bit more literary or stylistic, with encore placed after the adjective for emphasis.

Both mean “even more astonished”:

Marie est encore plus étonnée…
Marie est plus étonnée encore…

In everyday speech or standard writing, learners are safer using encore plus + adjective.