Je travaille toute la journée.

I work all day.

Breakdown of Je travaille toute la journée.

• je: I
• travailler: to work
• la journée: the day
• tout: whole

Questions & Answers about Je travaille toute la journée.

What does toute la journée literally mean, and how is it different from tous les jours?

Literally, toute la journée means the whole day / the entire day.

• Je travaille toute la journée.
  → I work (for) the whole day / all day.

This focuses on the length of one specific day from (roughly) morning to evening.

By contrast:

• tous les jours = every day (repeated, habitual action)
  • Je travaille tous les jours. → I work every day.

So:

• toute la journée → duration of one day (from start to end)
• tous les jours → frequency (how often something happens)

Why is it toute and not tout la journée?

Tout is an adjective that means all / whole / entire and it agrees with the noun it modifies in gender and number.

Forms of tout:

• masculine singular: tout (tout le jour)
• feminine singular: toute (toute la journée)
• masculine plural: tous (tous les jours)
• feminine plural: toutes (toutes les journées)

Since journée is feminine singular, we must use toute:

• toute la journée ✅
• tout la journée ❌ (wrong gender agreement)

Why is it journée and not jour?

French has both jour and journée, and they are not completely interchangeable.

• jour is more neutral and often used for:

  • calendar days, dates, counting days
    
    • trois jours = three days
  • contrasts like day vs night
    
    • le jour et la nuit

• journée emphasizes:

  • the duration of the day (how long it feels, what happens over the day)
  • the day as a period of time you live through

When you say:

• Je travaille toute la journée.

you are stressing that you work through the whole duration of the day, from beginning to end.
Using jour here would sound odd: toute le jour is not idiomatic; native speakers say toute la journée.

Does Je travaille toute la journée mean “I work all day (usually)” or “I am working all day (today)”?

It can mean either, depending on context, because French present tense covers:

1. Habitual actions (like English I work)

   • Je travaille toute la journée.
     → I work all day (that’s my usual schedule).

2. Actions happening today / now (like English I am working)

   • In the right context (for example, talking about today’s schedule):
     Je travaille toute la journée.
     → I’m working all day (today).

If you want to make today explicit, you can add:

• Je travaille toute la journée aujourd’hui.
  → I’m working all day today.

Why is there la in toute la journée? Could we say toute journée?

In this expression, the definite article la is required:

• toute la journée ✅
• toute journée ❌ (not natural in this meaning)

The pattern toute la + time word is very common:

• toute la nuit = all night
• toute la matinée = all morning
• toute la semaine = all week

Leaving out la here would sound incomplete or literary/very unusual. For everyday French meaning all day, you should say toute la journée with la.

Do we need a preposition like pendant (during) before toute la journée?

No, pendant is not necessary here.

• Je travaille toute la journée. ✅
  → perfectly natural and common.

You can say:

• Je travaille pendant toute la journée.

but in everyday speech this often sounds heavier; pendant is usually omitted when you have a clear time expression like toute la journée.

So for I work all day, the most natural is simply:

• Je travaille toute la journée.

How do you pronounce Je travaille toute la journée?

Approximate pronunciation (in English-friendly terms):

• Je → like zhuh (soft zh sound, like in measure)
• travaille → tra-vai (final -lle is silent; ai like eye but a bit shorter)
• toute → toot (final e is silent; ou like oo in too)
• la → like lah
• journée → zhoor-nay (the j is again like zh; née like nay)

Put together once more: zhuh tra-vai toot lah zhoor-nay.

There is no required liaison between toute and la here; you just pronounce toute as toot.

Can I change the word order and say Je travaille la journée toute?

No, that word order is incorrect.

In French, the normal order with tout(e) used as “whole / entire” is:

• tout(e) + article + noun

So you say:

• toute la journée ✅
  not:
• la journée toute ❌ in this sense (it either sounds wrong or very unusual/poetic)

Keep the standard order:

• Je travaille toute la journée.

How would I say I worked all day and I will work all day in French?

You keep toute la journée and just change the verb tense.

• I worked all day.

  • J’ai travaillé toute la journée.
    (passé composé, the usual past tense in speech)

• I will work all day.

  • Je travaillerai toute la journée. (simple future)
  • In more casual speech, you might also hear:
    Je vais travailler toute la journée. (going-to future)

In all cases, the time expression stays:

• toute la journée = all day / the whole day

Is there a difference between toute la journée and toute la journée entière or toute la journée complète?

Toute la journée already means the whole / entire day, so adding entière or complète is usually unnecessary.

• Je travaille toute la journée.
  → I work all day / the whole day.

You could say things like:

• Je travaille la journée entière.
• Je travaille toute la journée entière.

but that sounds more emphatic or stylistic, and in everyday French it’s more natural just to say:

• Je travaille toute la journée.

So for normal use, toute la journée is enough to express all day / the whole day.