Who all, where all, what all

[Infidel]

You should never use "What all".

You should never use "Where all".

You should never use "Who all"

You should avoid using never. And if you had read the previous 3 pages, you would have seen your own points countered.

They will think, "Is that proper usage? hmm...." and eventually make their decision. However, that doesn't change the fact that they thought it was strange to begin with.

You may think it's strange, but there are plenty of other native speakers, like me, that do not. Besides, you're wrong. While who is plural, it's requesting different information. If there is a party with 100 guests, and someone asks, "Who went to the party." then they are not asking for the names of all 100, they just want some highlights. If someone asks, "Who all went to the party." then they want to see the guest list.

Kinda like if you go to the southern states and you ask for a Coke.
What kind of Coke do you want?

A&W Cream soda is a pretty decent type of coke.

[Shirasagi]

More to the point, if he'd read the original post he'd have noticed that Chris (probably) doesn't need tips to make his English sound "natural".

[Yudan Taiteki]

To me, "Where are they all going" doesn't mean the same thing as "Where all are they going".

And yeah, I'm a native English speaker so my English is natural enough, I hope. It would take me a lot of unnecessary time and effort to eradicate interrogative + all from my spoken vocabulary, and I see no real reason to do so.

[Shirasagi]

Infidel wrote:
A&W Cream soda is a pretty decent type of coke.

I recently grabbed some cans of that from an import foods supermarket and was the hero of a beach BBQ.

You never appreciate root beer and creme soda until you're in a land where nobody likes them.

[AJBryant]

Shirasagi wrote:

Infidel wrote:
You never appreciate root beer and creme soda until you're in a land where nobody likes them.

Oh, HELL yeah.

Tony

[two_heads_talking]

zengargoyle wrote:
for me, that's "i'm a fixin' to fix you a drink." back to the original topic, "Who all was at the party?" is like adding 達 in Japanese... American English has lost the difference between singular 'You' and plural 'You', and some dialects have substituted "You all / Y'all" for the plural form. "Who all" is just the interrogatory form of 'You all', which is the plural form of 'You'. "Who all" is just the interrogatory form of 'You all' (aka Y'all) == 'You'達.


anyway... born and raised in the SouthWest part of Virginia, "Who all" and "You all" and even "Where all" are perfectly normal ways of asking about a plural (達) rather than a singular instance.

you should also be aware that "you all" .."y'all" can be singular and plural.

[adamcube]

I'm born and raised in Britain, and to me using "all" where has been discussed just sounds plain unnatural. If I were to go up to one of my fellow Britons and ask "Who all was at the party?", chances are my target would think me trying to impersonate a Southern American (no offence; stereotype, you understand)!

[Yudan Taiteki]

I've been thinking about this more and I'm still not sure what the difference is. I'm not completely convinced by the "X all asks for a full list" theory, because I don't think that every time I say it, I want a full list. I'm not sure at all that I would expect different answers from "Who was at the party" vs. "Who all was at the party". It may just emphasize the plurality in a redundant manner (in the same way that "were" in "They were reading" is redundant because you already know the subject is plural)

The only thing I can say 100% for certain is that "all" is not used in cases where there is definitely only one person or thing (i.e. "*Who all is president" or "*Where all is your house").

[adamcube]

Yudan Taiteki wrote:
I've been thinking about this more and I'm still not sure what the difference is. I'm not completely convinced by the "X all asks for a full list" theory, because I don't think that every time I say it, I want a full list. I'm not sure at all that I would expect different answers from "Who was at the party" vs. "Who all was at the party". It may just emphasize the plurality in a redundant manner (in the same way that "were" in "They were reading" is redundant because you already know the subject is plural)

The only thing I can say 100% for certain is that "all" is not used in cases where there is definitely only one person or thing (i.e. "*Who all is president" or "*Where all is your house").

I'm sorry, but to me those last two examples make no sense. I must admit it would stop me dead in the middle of conversation if those were thrown up. Must just be my English constraints?

[Yudan Taiteki]

The last two examples are unnatural, that's why they have the * in front of them. Those were examples of how the "all" constructions are *not* used in cases where it is clear that there is only one answer.

[adamcube]

Ah sorry, I misunderstood. But still, I would never use all in any of the ways discussed. The closest thing I can think of to be used in day to day conversation would be the "Y'all", but again in England we regard that as distinctly southern American, for some odd reason. I guess you could just pick out the need for a list versus "a few names" from the context.

[richvh]

"Y'all" is distinctly Southern American, even to an American ear.