§ 25. The pronoun all can be used as a noun pronoun and as an adjective pronoun.

All used as a noun pronoun is singular when it means 'every- thing', 'the whole of a thing'.

e.g. All's well that ends well, (proverb)

I don't find any change here, all looks as it always did.

He has lost all. Some day his pictures will be worth more than all you have

in your shop.

All used as a noun pronoun is plural when it means 'eve- rybody', 'the total number of persons, animals or things.'

e.g. All are welcome.

All agree that he has behaved splendidly.

All of us think so.

He made a few suggestions. All of them were acceptable.

When all is used as an adjective pronoun, the verb may be sin- gular or plural depending on the noun modified by all.

e.g. All the money was spent.

All that business fills me with disgust.

All the trunks are packed ready to go.

All students should register before October 1st.

There are a few peculiarities in the use of all: 1) When all is followed by a noun, there is no preposition be- tween them.¹ e.g. He worked hard all time he was here.

I don't like to speak before all these people. All my friends were happy to hear the news. All boys prefer playing games to going to school.

However, when all is followed by a personal pronoun, the preposition of must be used.

e.g. He has written three novels and all of them were best sellers. All of us were disappointed by him.

Note. In American English nouns following all are often joined to it, like per- sonal pronouns, with the help of the preposition of.

e.g. All of our students have registered. All of these books are mine.

2) Note the possible place of all with nouns (a) and personal pronouns (b) used as the subject of the sentence.

e.g. a) All the students found the lectures helpful. The students all found the lectures helpful, b) All of them found the lectures helpful. They all found the lectures helpful.

3) All may be followed by an appositive clause which is usually introduced by the conjunction that or asyndetically.

e.g. Meeting George was the first piece of pure chance that affect- ed all (that) I did later.

¹ For the use or absence of the definite article after all see "Articles", §10, Note.

She listened to all (that) he said with a quiet smile on her lips. Note the following idiomatic uses of all: e.g. He is all in. (= He is completely exhausted.) It was all my fault. (= entirely) The money is all gone. (= completely) He was all covered with mud. (= wholly) I did not understand it at all. (= in the least degree) After all, people laughed at Manet, though everyone now knows he was a great painter. I warn you, once and for all, that this foolishness must stop. (= for the last and only time)

§ 26. The pronoun every is used only as an adjective pronoun. It modifies singular countable nouns when there are more than two objects of the same description.

e.g. After the gale every flower in the garden was broken.

Every head turned to look at them as they progressed slowly up the aisle.

He knew by heart every word in her letter.

Every morning the landlady greeted him with the same ques- tion, "Had a good sleep, dear?"

Every time I ring you up, I find you engaged.

He had every reason to believe that he was right.

Note the idiomatic uses of every in the following sentences:

e.g. Every other house in the street was damaged in an air-raid.

(= every second, fourth, sixth, etc. house; about half the

houses)

He comes here every three days. (= every third day) They had a rest every few miles. (= They had a rest every

time they had walked a few miles.)

Every is a synonym of all when the latter is used attributive- ly. The use of every is, however, more restricted than that of all because it cannot be used with uncountable nouns.

With countable nouns, their use appears to be parallel.

e.g. The explosion broke all the windows in the street. The explosion broke every window in the street.

Yet, in addition to the fact that every precedes singular nouns and all is associated with plural nouns, there is a difference in meaning. The distinction between all and every is that in a sen- tence like All the boys were present we consider the boys in a mass; in the sentence Every boy was present we are thinking of the many individual boys that make up the mass. Nevertheless it is more usual to use every instead of all where possible.