What's the difference between "tous les jours" and "chaque jour"? Do they both mean every day?
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Olivia H.Kwiziq community member
What's the difference between "tous les jours" and "chaque jour"? Do they both mean every day?
This question relates to:French lesson "Expressing past habits or repeated actions with the imperfect tense in French (L'Imparfait)"
Asked 8 years ago
LauraKwiziq team member
Bonjour Olivia,
Tous les jours means "every day," and chaque jour means "each day." So the meanings are very similar, but not quite the same, just as in English.
Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Bonjour Laura,
your explanation fits with what I thought I knew, but the lisais and etudias examples above use the two different French forms "tous les" and "chaque" applying to the same English form "every".
Is that just a bit of looseness in the examples, or are their more nuances of which we should be aware?
AurélieKwiziq team member
Bonjour Nigel !
I understand your point. The fact is "chaque" and "tous les" are completely interchangeable in French when it comes to express the notion of "every". However, to be absolutely precise, "chaque" is indeed the grammatical equivalent of "each", and "tous les" of "every".
I've now updated the examples to reflect this in a more specific way :)
I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt !
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