Language/French/Grammar/encore-VS-toujours

"Encore" and "Toujours" Meanings

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"Encore" & "Toujours" have several meanings which make them difficult for the learner.

"encore" and "toujours" = "still"

Both "encore" and "toujours" can mean "still" in clauses which express a situation that is unfolding at the moment.

• Est-il encore/toujours ici?

Is he still there? (Her being here is a state of affairs unfolding right now)

• Elle se plaint encore/toujours

She is still complaining (His complaint is a state of affairs that is unfolding at the moment)

"Encore" = "again"

In clauses that describe an action that has been completed or that may potentially end, however, "encore" means "again":

• Il a encore perdu son sac

He has lost his bag again (His losing of the bag is a completed action)

• J'ai peur de m'énerver encore

I'm afraid to get angry again (Although I haven't done so yet, getting angry has the potential for being a completed action)

"Encore" = "still" or "again"

Note that if "encore" modifies the first clause, which expresses a state of affairs, it could mean either 'still' or 'again':

• J'ai encore peur de m'énerver

"I'm still afraid of getting angry" or "Once again I am afraid of getting angry"

"Encore" = "still more, further"

Where "encore" modifies a noun phrase or other adverbs it can mean "still more, further":

• Encore du lait, s'il vous plaît

More milk, please

• Ils ont parlé encore une ou deux heures

They talked a further one or two hours

• Elle est encore plus bavarde que son frère

She is even more talkative than her brother

• J'aime encore mieux son projet d'entreprise que la mien

I like his business plan even better than mine

"toujours" = "always"

"toujours", in addition to meaning "still", can mean "always":

• Elles ont toujours été dures en affaire

They've always been tough on business

• On s'efforçait depuis toujours de me cacher la vérité sur mon enfance

They always tried to hide the truth about my childhood

"toujours" = "still"

In sentences negated by the word "pas", if "toujours" placed before "pas" it means "still" (if it follows it means "always"):

• Son avion n'a toujours pas décollé

His plane still hasn't taken off

• Il n'a pas toujours été présent pour son fils adoptif

He was not always present for his adopted son

"encore" = "yet"

"encore" can only follow "pas" and means "yet":

• Il n'est pas encore parti

He hasn't yet left

Sources

• https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=9780340991244
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwWY76hq8EE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ernFuOcfpTU

Other chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds