le jour vs. la journée

[James H Smith]

Can someone explain the difference in usage between  le jour  and  la journée.

[nonick]

I don't think there is a special rule, but journée refers more to the present time, even if you talk with a past or future tense :

"Par une belle journée d'octobre, ils allèrent se promener."
"Que fera-t-on pendant la journée ?"
"Cette journée est magnifique !"

jour is more abstract, imprecise. For instance, you can't use journée to talk about a length of time :

"Nous irons à la pêche dans trois jours."
"Je l'ai aperçu il y a trois jours."

though you can say "ce jour est à marquer d'une pierre blanche" like "cette journée est à marquer d'une pierre blanche" :) in that case, jour is more used in spoken language, and journée in the written language...

[Neil Coffey]

Thanks nonick I think that's a very good explanation. I think if you say that journée emphasises the passage or experience of time, then that might help get across what you mean by "present" time in the past/future.

A pair that can help to explain this is:

tous les jours
toute la journée

In the first case, you're not focussing on any individual day; but in the second case, you focus on the passge of time during a single day. Another pair:

J'ai travaillé trois jours.
J'ai travaillé trois journées entières/consécutives

In the first case, you're just "boringly" saying how long you were working four. In the second, you "emphasise" each individual day in some way.

Incidentally, the pairs matin/matinée and soir/soirée work in essentially the same way.

[James H Smith]

Thank you nonick & Neil. I think that explains it well.