French · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "toujours" in French?

Q: How do you pronounce toujours in French?

toujours is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tu.ʒuʁ/. It means “always.” too-ZHOOR — two rounded vowels, a soft "zh", and a silent final "s".

too-ZHOOR — two rounded vowels, a soft "zh", and a silent final "s".

toujours /tu.ʒuʁ/

tou-JOURS, weight on the second syllable. Both vowels are the same rounded "oo", so the lips stay pushed forward for the whole word.

Listen: toujours

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

tou An unaspirated "t" plus the back "oo" of "soup".

jour The soft "zh" of "measure", another "oo", then a uvular "r". The word is literally "all days" — "tous" plus "jours" fused together.

s Silent. It is the historical plural marker from "jours", preserved in the spelling.

Hear it in a sentence

Il est toujours en retard.

He is always late.

Listen: Il est toujours en retard.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Il est toujours en retard" places the adverb between the verb and the complement, which is standard for short adverbs. "En retard" is a nasal vowel plus a word ending in a silent "d": ahn ruh-TAR. Note the liaison in "il est", /i.l‿ɛ/, which fuses the first two words into one.

Where English speakers slip

The final "s" gets pronounced, giving "too-ZHOORS", which is the commonest slip and comes straight from English reading habits. The "j" also comes out hard, as in "journey". Both fixes are small but transformative: soft buzz at the start of the second syllable, silence at the end. And note the meaning can shift to "still" in some contexts — "il est toujours là" can mean he is still there.