Still and Always

The French words encore and toujours have a few different meanings, but they share one in common: "still." Because of this shared meaning, it’s easy to confuse these two very common words. Let’s take an in-depth look at both of them to see where they merge and diverge.

In general, when you're using "still" in the sense of continuity (i.e. "to still be doing something"), encore and toujours are interchangeable. For example, "he is still on the phone" could be both il est encore au téléphone and il est toujours au téléphone.

Besides "still," the basic meanings of encore and toujours are:

encore: more/another, again, yet

toujours: always, anyway/anyhow

Let’s start with encore. In their video for "La place des anges" (The Angels’ Place), the Belgian band Yaaz manages to fit two of encore’s meanings into one sad little line:

Elle a encore peur, elle a encore pleuré

She is still afraid, she has cried again

Caption 13, Yaaz - La place des anges
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Hopefully she’ll be feeling better soon! On a different note, encore can also mean "another" or "more" (as in "one more," "two more," etc.), as the band Dahlia uses it in this song lyric:

Encore une fois, encore une autre,

One more time, another one,

et encore une voix, encore un manque

and one more voice, another lack

Caption 25, Dahlia - Contre-courant
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So now do you see why a band’s return to the stage is called an "encore"? It’s because the audience wants to see them once again!

Along these same lines, encore + a noun usually means "more of something," like food at the dinner table:

Vous voulez encore du pain?

Do you want some more bread?

Encore can also mean "yet," usually in the sense of "not yet" (pas encore):

Donc elle est pas encore prête pour la ferme.

So it's not ready for the farm yet.

Caption 8, Agriculture verticale - TerraSphere
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Now let’s explore toujours. Daniel Benchimol uses it as "still" when orienting us on his tour of the Normandy town of Honfleur:

Toujours à Honfleur,

Still in Honfleur,

nous sommes maintenant sur la place Sainte-Catherine.

we are now in Sainte-Catherine Square.

Caption 17, Voyage en France - La Normandie: Honfleur
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And Fred uses it as "always" to describe the perpetually perfect weather in Miami:

Il fait toujours chaud, toujours beau, toujours agréable.

It's always warm, always nice, always pleasant.

Caption 34, Fred et Miami Catamarans - Fred et sa vie à Miami
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You can remember this meaning by breaking the word down: toujours is a combination of the words tous (all) and jours (days), so it literally means "all days."

The final meaning of toujours is "anyway":

Je ne vais probablement pas gagner à la loterie, mais je vais toujours essayer.

I probably won’t win the lottery, but I’m going to try anyway.

Since both of these words have quite a few meanings, context is key when determining which one they’re referring to. So if you receive a text message after a first date that reads, Tu as toujours envie de me voir?, don't freak out! Your potential love interest isn't asking you if you always feel like seeing him or her, but rather if you still feel like seeing him or her. You're just being asked out on a second date! Context is also important when the two words are used in the same sentence:

Il y a encore autre chose que nous t'avons toujours caché!

There is still another thing that we've always hidden from you!

Caption 6, Les zooriginaux - 3 Qui suis-je?
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We could rehash this subject encore et toujours (again and again), but maybe it’s best for you to explore these words on your own by looking out for them in the Yabla French videos. They should pop up quite often!

Topics Vocabulary