{"id":21685,"date":"2015-02-20T01:02:48","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T00:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=21685"},"modified":"2017-10-23T14:09:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T12:09:39","slug":"tout-sur-tout-everything-you-need-to-know-about-tout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/tout-sur-tout-everything-you-need-to-know-about-tout\/","title":{"rendered":"Tout sur Tout: Everything You Need to Know about Tout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tout<\/strong> is a very versatile word in French — you’ll generally find it means “all,” but you’ll notice different meanings when you see all its forms. This little word can be used as an adjective, an adverb, a noun, and a pronoun, and all with varying forms. We’ll go over all of those separately. I noticed my students often had trouble with this word, but once explained, the confusion was easily cleared up.<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

Un adjectif <\/strong>is used to describe a noun — words like grand, heureux, et g\u00e9nial <\/strong>(big, happy, great) are all adjectives. Just like with other adjectives in French, tout<\/strong> (translation here: all, whole) has different forms. Tout<\/strong> is used before the noun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Masculine singular form<\/td>\ntout<\/strong><\/td>\nCamille a mang\u00e9 tout<\/span> le gateau!<\/strong>
\n(Camille ate the whole cake.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Feminine singular form<\/td>\ntoute<\/strong><\/td>\nJe vais nettoyer toute<\/span> la maison.<\/strong>
\n(I’m going to clean the whole house.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Masculine plural form<\/td>\ntous<\/strong><\/td>\nTous<\/span> les chiens vont au paradis.<\/strong>
\n(All dogs go to heaven.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Feminine plural form<\/td>\ntoutes<\/strong><\/td>\nJ’ai enregistr\u00e9 toutes<\/span> les \u00e9missions.<\/strong>
\n(I recorded all the programs.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The masculine forms are both pronounced the same way. The final -t in the masculine form is sometimes pronounced because of elision (\u00e0 tout \u00e2ge<\/strong>, for example), but the -s in the plural form will not be pronounced unless it is before a consonant. For the feminine forms, they are both pronounced the same way with the -s not being pronounced.<\/p>\n

There are some fixed expressions and constructions I think should be discussed. Tout<\/strong> as an adjective means “all” or “whole,” but can also mean “every.” The French word for every is chaque<\/strong>, but here are some examples of how to use tout<\/strong> for “every.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0tous les jours <\/strong>– every day
\n\u00a0 \u00a0tout le monde<\/strong> – everybody
\n\u00a0 \u00a0tout le temps<\/strong> – all the time (but chaque fois<\/strong> – each time – not toutes les fois<\/strong>)
\n\u00a0 \u00a0tous les dimanches soirs <\/strong>\u00a0– every Sunday night (I used to always say chaque dimanche soir<\/strong> before learning this construction)<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Un adverbe <\/strong>is used to modify or qualify another adverb, an adjective, or a verb. Words such as bien, d\u00e9j\u00e0, <\/strong>and parfois <\/strong>(well, already, sometimes) are all adverbs. As an adverb, tout<\/strong> means very or quite. \u00a0Tout<\/strong> as an adverb is pretty easy in terms of agreement, but we’ll discuss the exception.<\/p>\n

When describing a masculine adjective that’s either singular or plural, tout<\/strong> is invariable (it doesn’t change).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Il est tout content d’\u00eatre avec moi. <\/strong>(He’s very happy to be with me.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Ils sont tout triste.<\/strong> (They are all sad). Notice the subject is plural, but tout<\/strong> doesn’t change to tous<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tout <\/strong>gets a little tricky with feminine adjectives. For both singular and plural adjectives that begin with a vowel or a mute H, tout <\/strong>stays invariable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Diane a mang\u00e9 la pizza tout enti\u00e8re.<\/strong> (Diane ate the whole pizza.) Despite the fact that enti\u00e8re<\/strong> is feminine (because of la pizza<\/strong>), tout<\/strong> stays in its invariable state.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On the other hand, when the feminine adjective begins with either a consonant or an aspirated H, tout <\/strong>will become feminine and either singular or plural.<\/p>\n

C’est une fille toute petite, mais elle peut tout faire!<\/strong> (She’s a small girl, but she can do it all!)<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Un nom <\/strong>is a person, place, thing, or idea, and it’s probably the easiest form of tout<\/strong>. Le tout<\/strong> can mean whole, all, or everything. Its plural form is les touts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 L’univers fait partie d’un tout. <\/strong>(The universe is part of a whole)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Je ne peux pas vendre que des parties de la voiture – il faut acheter le tout. \u00a0<\/strong>(I can’t just sell parts of the car – you’ll have to buy the whole thing.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You’ll also see tout<\/strong> used as a noun in the expressions pas du tout<\/strong> (not at all) and rien de tout <\/strong>(nothing at all).<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Un pronom <\/strong>replaces a noun. Think of il <\/strong>and elle<\/strong>, for example, because they replace a person’s name. As a pronoun, tout<\/strong> means all, everything, or everyone. It only has 3 different forms: tout<\/strong>, tous<\/strong>, and toutes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Oui, tout va bien, merci.<\/strong> (Everything’s going well, thank you.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Mes enfants sont tous adorables.<\/strong> (All my kids are adorable.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Les filles sont all\u00e9es aux toilettes toutes ensemble.<\/strong> (The girls all went to the bathroom together.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The pronunciation of tous<\/strong> as a pronoun is special: you pronounce the -s at the end, even if the first letter of the next word is a consonant. Sure it goes against everything you’ve been taught, but French is full of fun little exceptions \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

C’est tout<\/span>! Merci \u00e0 tous <\/span>d’avoir lu la le\u00e7on. J’esp\u00e8re que tout <\/span>est clair maintenant, mais sinon, vous pouvez passer toute<\/span> la journ\u00e9e en faisant des exercices pour tout <\/span>comprendre!<\/strong><\/p>\n

(That’s all! Thank you all for reading the lesson. I hope it’s all clear now, but if not, you can spend your whole day doing exercises to understand everything!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Tout is a very versatile word in French — you’ll generally find it means “all,” but you’ll notice different meanings when you see all its forms. This little word can be used as an adjective, an adverb, a noun, and a pronoun, and all with varying forms. We’ll go over all of those separately. I…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":21686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[348535,348533,348534,348536],"class_list":["post-21685","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-tous","tag-tout","tag-toute","tag-toutes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t