Learn English – all + noun, all + the noun, all of the + noun, all of + noun, which one is right

meaning

As determiner, I can't figure out 'all' well.

all five men, all the students, all of the food, all wood etc.

all + noun, all + the noun, all of the + noun, all of + noun, which one is right?

Best Answer

"All of + noun" is usually considered grammatically incorrect, while "All the + noun" is informal usage and has an implied "of" in between "all" and "the". (I'm writing this from my phone, so pardon me if I don't have any sources. Once I get to my computer I'll see if I can find some). The other two have similar meanings but different scope.

Using your examples, when you say "all wood", it means literally all wood, anywhere and everywhere. It could be in China, or Canada, or the Moon. "All wood is organic."

On the other hand, "All of the food" means every bit of food, but only in that particular context. So if you've just finished eating Thanksgiving supper and say, "all of the food is gone", it doesn't mean all food in the world is gone, just that all (of) the food that was prepared for the meal has been eaten. In this case "of the" serves to limit the subject to what was already introduced or that is obvious given the context (there's a word for this but it's slipped my mind). The "five" in your first example does the same thing by limiting the subject to five men (in this case the subject is being introduced for the first time, while "the" could mean different things depending on what came before it or what the current situation is).

Examples:

  • "Little Sam was playing in the sandbox with his toy trucks. All of the trucks had been given to him by his Aunt Sally." You can see how "the trucks" only refers to Sam's trucks, and not literally all trucks.
  • "Traffic on Highway 401 was crawling with cars due to the Pan-Am games. All of the trucks took alternate routes to avoid the traffic." Compared to the previous example, you can see how "the trucks" refers to a different set of trucks, but is still limited in scope.
  • "All people play Pac-Man", while obviously un-true, means that every single person existing plays Pac-Man.
  • "JK Rowling, Roald Dahl, and Enid Blyton are popular children's authors. All of their books were published in huge numbers." Here, "their" takes the place of "the", but you can see how it limits "books" to just those of the authors.
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