Language/French/Grammar/Form-and-uses-of-tout

Form and uses of tout in French

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

tout can function as a determiner, a quantifier, a pronoun and an adverb. It behaves differently with respect to agreement in each of these roles, so it is important to distinguish them.

Consider broadening your understanding by checking out these related lessons: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives — A change in written, but not spoken & Reflexive pronouns.

tout as a determiner

tout is a determiner in constructions like the following. Here there is no article and tout agrees with the noun which it determines:

• Tout parent veut le bien de son enfant

Every parent wants what is best for his or her child

• Toutes taxes comprises

All taxes included

• Les repas sont servis à toute heure

Meals are served at any time

• Ils sont venus à toute vitesse

They came as quickly as they could

• Un tel costume convient à toute occasion

Such a suit can be worn on any occasion

tout as a quantifier

tout is a quantifier (see Chapter 6.9) in the following examples. Its translation equivalent in English is usually 'all'. It agrees with the noun which it modifies:

• Tous les garçons sont arrivés

All the boys have arrived

• Toutes les chansons qu'ils passent sur cette chaîne sont dépassées

All the songs they play on that station are out of date

• Il s'en est plaint toute la journée

He complained about it all day

tout as a pronoun

tout is a pronoun when it is used as a subject, direct object, indirect object or follows a preposition. When it has the indefinite meaning 'everything, all' it is invariable:

• Tout bien considéré, j'ai décidé de ne pas le faire

All things considered, I've decided not to do it

• Tu m'avais dit que tout serait réglé avant ce soir

You told me that everything would be sorted out by this evening

When it refers to people or things mentioned or implied elsewhere in the discourse, it agrees in gender and number with those entities, and takes one of the forms tout, toute, tous, toutes. In this use the final -s of tous is pronounced:

• Nous sommes infiniment redevables à tous (final -s pronounced)

We are eternally grateful to everyone

• Nous allons chanter tous ensemble (final -s pronounced)

We'll all sing together

• Je n'aime plus ces chansons. Toutes sont dépassées

I don't like these songs anymore. They are alt out of date

tout as an adverb

tout is an adverb when it modifies another adverb, a preposition or an adjective. It has the meaning of 'completely, very'. In front of an adverb or preposition it is invariable:

• Elle chante tout bas

She is singing very quietly

• Son succès était tout bonnement la meilleure surprise de l'année

His success was quite simply the best surprise of the year

• Tu fais tout de travers

You do everything the wrong way round

In front of an adjective it agrees if the adjective is feminine and begins with a consonant:

• Les petites filles étaient toutes désemparées par l'annonce de la directrice

The little girls were completely taken aback by the headmistress's announcement

• Tes soeurs sont toutes prêtes à venir te rejoindre

Your sisters are quite ready to come out and pin you

Agreement is optional in front of adjectives which are feminine and begin with a vowel or a silent h:

• Tu sais bien que ta soeur serait tout (or toute) heureuse de te revoir

You know full well that your sister would be delighted to see you again

• Les petites chattes étaient tout (or toutes) excitées par les mouvement de la bobine de fil

The little kittens were thoroughly excited by the movements of the cotton reel

Sources

• https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=9780340991244
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziOn8nd5eT4
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAZPjDkHV-g

Other Lessons

• Auxiliaries
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of “être”
• Active Voice and Passive Voice
• Directly transitive verbs
• Ambiguity of reference of lui and leur
• Negations
• Degree adverbs
• Use of the neutral pronoun le
• Fused forms of the definite article
• "de" when an adjective precedes the noun
• Unstressed and Stressed Pronouns
• Verbs which are directly transitive in French
• Nouns with irregular plurals
• Conjugation group 3
• Homophones