All them or all of them

Question

I am never sure when I try to put this expression. For example:

All of them

All them

They all

All they

Are they correct?.

Answer 1

They all - All of them collectively.

They all want a beer - each of them would like to have a beer

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All they - The only thing

All they wanted was a beer - the only thing that they wanted was a beer

I see.... - nila45, Feb 20, 2010

But how do you say i do all of them - BELOWIT, Sep 19, 2013

Answer 2

These might require a bit more context to decide

How many would you like? - I will take all of them

They all decided to go to the beach.

All they want is a little peace and quiet (this can also be said - All that they)

I can't think of an instance where "all them" might be possible to use in a grammatically correct statement (although, in Texas you might hear this used in extremely informal speech - "Man, I left all them beers by the door" - should be "all those")

Answer 3

This way was how my grammar book explained the relatives. All (that) you need is love.

I just wanted to point out that, while your example would be perfectly fine, this omission is not allowed when the word that immediately follows the relative pronoun is a verb, for example.

He was the one who/that jumped the queue.

Would not be able to be said without the relative pronoun because the verb jumped follows immediately after the pronoun. Does this make sense?

Answer 4

They all = all they?

In my opinion they are not the same.

1). They all like to dance.

In this sentence, they all refers to everyone the speaker or writer is talking about. The focus is on everyone.

2). All they like to do is dance.

All they, in this sentence makes the point that they (two or more) only like to dance and nothing else. The all focus is on what they like.

Please remember that I'm not a teacher so my explanation may be hard to comprehend.

My answer looks different than what I had written! A few words are not spaced correctly. Sorry about that! I'm not very familiar with how a post should look before I click submit. - Joey-Jones, Feb 20, 2010

I edited it so that the formatting was not so congested...I hope this is closer to what you had intended :) - Izanoni1, Feb 20, 2010

Yes but since you can edit, I would like "In this sentence," at the end example 1 to be put at the beginning of the sentence below please. Thank you - Joey-Jones, Feb 20, 2010

Answer 5

All of them were at the party . Todos estuvieron en la fiesta.

They all came to the party. Todos vinieron a la fiesta.

(Do correct my Spanish if it's wrong

All they is not grammatically correct, neither is All them

... Unless you're singin' them blues man.

Answer 6

By the way, is it correct to say "all that they want to do is to watch TV"?

Please excuse any errors (I am sure that your English abilities are probably head and shoulders above my own Spanish proficiencies), but I believe that this might be said something like this.

Todo lo que quieren hacer es ver la tele - All (that) they want to do is watch TV

What you should recognize is that in English the relative clause at times can be optional which means that in some cases it can be omitted, but just keep in mind that this omission is purely optional in these cases

You should never feel that your sentence will be incorrect should you choose to keep the pronoun.

Answer 7

By the way, is it correct to say "all that they want to do is to watch TV"?

My opinion is the sentence is good with or without the word "that". - Joey-Jones, Feb 20, 2010

Answer 8

• All (that) he has is his father

Of course, Izanoni. Now, I was remembering the title of the song: All you need is love.

This way was how my grammar book explained the relatives. All (that) you need is love.

Answer 9

All they is not grammatically correct

I disagree with this statement because you are effectively saying that statements such as these are not possible.

• All (that) he has is his father

• All (that) they have is their father

While in Spanish, it is mandatory to join two clauses such as these with a relative pronoun, in English this relative pronoun is often omitted (especially in cases of a human antecedent.)

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If you are unsure about this, try looking up the term "Zero relative pronoun" and see what you find

Here is a link to a book that gives a fairly straightforward explanation of this phenomena Zero Relative Pronoun - page 284 You can follow this link to preview the book if you like. They relevant information is on page 284 which you can also find by searching the book using the term "zero relative pronoun."

Alternatively, you can cut and paste this URL in your browser and you will be taken directly to the appropriate page

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ri1Y65DqbhkC&pg=PA284&lpg=PA284&dq=zero+relative+pronoun&source=bl&ots=mDQx7Gc0bb&sig=AycVMKFqYvLCGi5S1iZ-wTpzQk8&hl=en&ei=yf9_S4eCB4-2Ns6i-cAE&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBEQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=zero relative pronoun&f=false

Answer 10

They all = all they?