THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'ALL' AND 'EVERYTHING'
‘All’ and ‘everything’ both suggest generally the same: totality.
‘All’ suggests the wholeness of something. So we have: ‘all the earth’ or ‘all the notes’ or ‘all the peaches’ and so on.
‘All’ is nearly always used with a noun, for example:‘did you eat all the chocolate rolls?’
Many of my English students from Spain use ‘all’ without a noun. For example, they might say: ‘Did you eat all?’ Please avoid using ‘all’ without a noun. Really, it needs one (well, nearly always)!
Everything is a pronoun and refers to things and means each and every one thing. For example: ‘she understands everything’ or ‘I have forgotten everything’ or ‘their children mean everything to them’.
So ‘Everything’ doesn't require a noun. It asks more generally:
‘Did you do everything?’
Of course, there are exceptions in English and here is one of the most common ones with regard to non use of a noun with ‘all’:
‘Is that all?’ or 'that is all'.
So, you generally can't use ‘all’ on its own. It MUST be followed by a noun (‘all the people’, ‘all my furniture’, ‘all his coins’ etc.). Have a great day!
30. August 2018
