all

all

1. all or all of.

All can be used before singular or plural nouns, and of is not needed except before pronouns standing alone (all human life / all the time / all children / all tickets / all of them / all you people). The construction with of is comparatively recent (first recorded c.1800) and is probably due to association with none of, some of, little of, much of, etc.

• (He will have to be all of these things —Anita Brookner, 1986

• All of the company's profits had been used to salary him —B. Ripley, 1987

• At each stop, all of us visitors were greeted by a hail of celebratory statistics —New Yorker, 1989).

There is also a common idiomatic use with quantities

• (It must have been all of fifteen minutes of…dull, homesick silence —Mark Twain, 1883

• Even I, all of eight years old, couldn't stand another second of his shrieking —Me Three Magazine, AmE 1944).

2. When all is the subject of the verb to be followed by a plural complement, the linking verb is expressed in the singular:

• All I saw was fields —Nigel Williams, 1985

• In some sense, all we have is the scores —incomplete and corrupted as they often are —New Yorker, 1989.

3. See also all right, all that, all together, all told, already; for all but see but ⁷.