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all (of) with noun phrases and pronouns

all and all of​

All (of) can modify noun phrases and pronouns, especially in American English.

Before a noun with a determiner (for example the, my, this), all and all of are both possible. All is more common than all of in British English.

  • She’s eaten all (of) the cake.
  • All (of) my friends like riding.

Before a noun with no determiner, we do not normally use of.

  • All children can be difficult. (not All of children …)

all of + personal pronoun​

With personal pronouns, we use all of + us/you/them.

All of us/you/them can be a subject or object.

  • All of us can come tomorrow. (not All we …)
  • She’s invited all of you.
  • Emily sent all of them her love.

Pronoun + all​

We can put all after pronouns used as objects.

  • She’s invited you all.
  • Emily sent her love to them all.
  • I’ve made us all something to eat.

This does not generally happen with complement pronouns (after be) or in short answers.

  • I think that’s all of them. (not I think that’s them all.)
  • ‘Who did she invite?’ ‘All of us.’ (not Us all.)

All can follow a subject pronoun (e.g. They all went home), but in this case it is positioned with the verb (see here) and may be separated from the pronoun (e.g. They have all gone home).

note

For the American plural pronoun you all, (see here).

Types of noun​

All is used mostly before uncountable and plural noun phrases.

  • all the water
  • all my friends

However, all can be used before some singular countable nouns referring to things that can naturally be divided into parts.

  • all that week
  • all my family
  • all the way

We can also use all (of) before proper nouns (e.g. the names of places or writers), especially in BrE.

  • All (of) London knew about her affairs.
  • I’ve read all (of) Shakespeare.

With other singular countable nouns, it is more natural to use whole (e.g. the whole story). For details, (see here).

Leaving out the​

After all, we sometimes leave out the before numbers.

  • all (the) three brothers

And we usually leave out the in all day, all night, all week, all year, all winter and all summer.

  • She stayed here all day. (not … all the day).

not all …​

It is not very common to use all + noun as the subject of a negative verb (e.g. All Americans don’t like hamburgers). We more often use not all + noun + affirmative verb.

  • Not all Americans like hamburgers.

Note the difference between not all and no. Compare:

  • Not all birds can fly.
  • No birds can play chess.