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All

All refers to three or more items. It is used mostly before plural and uncountable nouns.

• All children need love.
  
• I love all music.
  
• All the invitees turned up.
  

When all is followed by a plural noun, the verb is normally plural. After an uncountable noun, we use a singular verb.

• All cheese contains fat.
  
• All the lights were out.
  

All + noun is not normally used as the subject of a negative verb. We more often use the structure not all + noun + affirmative verb.

• Not all birds can sing. (NOT All birds cannot sing.)
  

All and All of

Before a noun with no determiner (possessives, articles and demonstratives) we use all.

• All children need love.
  
• All cheese contains fat.
  
• All lights were out.
  

Before a noun with a determiner (the, my, this etc.), all and all of are both possible.

• All the lights were out.
  
• All of the lights were out.
  
• I have invited all my friends to my birthday party.
  
• I have invited all of my friends to my birthday party.
  

Before a personal pronoun (us, them etc.) we use all of + object form.

• All of us love music. (NOT All us love music)
  
• I have invited all of them. (NOT…all them.)
  

All with nouns and pronouns

All can modify nouns and pronouns. We normally place it before the noun/pronoun.

• I have invited all (of) my friends.
  
• All of us love music.
  
• I love all of you.
  
• All of us are going to the movies.
  

We can put all after pronouns used as objects.

• I love you all. (= I love all of you.)
  
• Give my love to them all. (= Give my love to all of them.)
  
• I have made you all something to eat. (= I have made all of you something to eat.)
  

Note that all cannot be put after pronouns used as subject complements.

• Is that all of them? (NOT Is that them all?)

All with verbs

When all refers to the subject of a clause, it can go with the verb.

When the verb consists of just one word, and that word is not a form of be (is, am, are, was, were), all is placed before the verb.

• They all came. (All + other verb)
  
• We all love music. (All + other verb)
  

When the verb is a form of be, all is placed after it.

• You are all welcome. (be + all)
  
• We were all invited. (be + all)
  

When there are two auxiliary verbs, all goes after the first.

• They have all gone home. (Auxiliary verb + all + other verb)
  
• They have all been told. (Auxiliary verb + all + auxiliary verb + other verb)
  

Note that these meanings can also be expressed by using all (of) + noun/pronoun.

• All of them came.
• All of us love music.
• All of you are welcome.
• All of us have been invited.
• All of them have gone home.

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