The short version

• Encore covers “still,” “again,” and “yet” (with negation) — it’s about repetition or an ongoing state that could change.
• Toujours covers “always” and, separately, “still” — it’s about constancy or unbroken continuity.

When both could technically work for “still,” toujours leans toward permanence, encore leans toward “even now, but maybe not for long.”

When to use encore

• Again: Il a encore oublié ses clés. (He forgot his keys again.)
• Still, with a sense it might end soon: Il pleut encore. (It’s still raining.)
• Not yet, with negation: Je n’ai pas encore fini. (I haven’t finished yet.)
• Even more, intensifying a comparison: C’est encore plus cher. (It’s even more expensive.)
• One more, requesting repetition: Encore un café, s’il vous plaît. (One more coffee, please.)

When to use toujours

• Always: Il arrive toujours en retard. (He’s always late.)
• Still, emphasizing constancy: Elle habite toujours à Paris. (She still lives in Paris — has this whole time.)
• Fixed habitual pattern: Je bois toujours du café le matin. (I always drink coffee in the morning.)
• At the very least, as a fallback: Tu peux toujours essayer. (You can always try.)
• In every case, without exception: C’est toujours pareil. (It’s always the same.)

Quick chart

The overlap zone: two ways to say “still”

The trickiest part of this pair is that both words can translate “still” in English, and native speakers do make a real distinction between them even though it’s subtle. Il travaille encore and Il travaille toujours both mean “he’s still working,” but they carry slightly different implications. Encore suggests the action has been going on and might reasonably be expected to stop — there’s a hint of “even now, surprisingly” or “as of this moment.” Toujours suggests a longer, more settled continuity — the sense that nothing has changed since some earlier point, with less implication that a change is imminent. If your boss asks whether an employee still works at the company after years there, il travaille toujours ici sounds natural. If you’re asking whether someone is still stuck at the office at 9pm, il travaille encore fits better because there’s an expectation the work should be wrapping up. In practice, native speakers use them close to interchangeably in casual speech, so don’t lose sleep over picking the “more correct” one — but leaning toward toujours for long-term states and encore for temporary, ongoing ones will sound more natural. One more test that helps: if adding “surprisingly” to the English sentence still makes sense (“he’s still, surprisingly, working”), encore usually fits better than toujours. The same distinction shows up with weather: il pleut encore reports rain that’s dragged on longer than expected and might stop any minute, while a French speaker describing a genuinely rainy climate in general terms would reach for a habitual construction rather than toujours, since toujours applied to weather tends to sound like an exaggerated complaint (il pleut toujours ici! — “it’s always raining here!” — a statement about the climate, not the current shower).

Mistakes learners make

• Using toujours for “again,” which is always encore’s job — toujours never means “again.”
• Forgetting that “not yet” is pas encore, not pas toujours, which doesn’t mean anything close to “not yet.”
• Using encore for “always” in a fixed habitual sense — that meaning belongs to toujours alone.
• Overthinking the encore/toujours “still” overlap and avoiding both out of uncertainty — either one is usually understood correctly in context.
• Forgetting encore’s “one more” request use, defaulting instead to a longer, more awkward phrase when ordering or asking for repetition.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between encore and toujours?

Encore means “again,” “not yet” (with negation), or “still” with a sense the state might change soon. Toujours means “always” or “still” with a sense of longer, settled continuity.

How do you say “not yet” in French?

Pas encore. Toujours cannot be used for “not yet” — that meaning belongs entirely to encore in its negated form.

Can toujours mean “again”?

No. “Again” is always encore — encore une fois means “one more time.” Toujours never carries the meaning of repetition.

Is encore or toujours used for “always”?

Toujours. Il arrive toujours en retard means “he’s always late.” Encore doesn’t cover the meaning of habitual constancy.

What’s the difference between il travaille encore and il travaille toujours?

Both can mean “he’s still working,” but encore leans toward a temporary state that might end soon, while toujours suggests a longer, more settled continuity.

How do you say “even more” in French?

Encore plus, as in c’est encore plus difficile (it’s even more difficult) — this intensifying use belongs to encore, not toujours.

What’s the difference between il pleut encore and il pleut toujours?

Il pleut encore reports that it’s still raining right now, possibly about to stop. Il pleut toujours ici, applied generally, reads more like a complaint about the climate than a report on the current weather.

Can you use encore to ask for more of something?

Yes. Encore un café, s’il vous plaît (one more coffee, please) uses encore to request repetition or an additional amount, a common everyday use beyond its “still” or “again” meanings.

The encore/toujours overlap is subtle enough that even confident speakers second-guess it. corrector.co’s free French checker flags the clear-cut mistakes, like toujours used for “again.”

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