Among the competences to which we are submitted as effective interlocutors of a discourse, whether in the modality oral or written, the adequacy of our linguistic profile to the standards recommended by grammar traditional.
Normally, we come across some rules concerning the guiding facts of the language that we never thought existed, given the such complexity that governs the language.
However, we must stick to the question that they exist, and when it comes to the written modality, it is advisable that we are able to adapting to the demands determined by it, and, above all, making them practical in the different communicative situations that guide our daily lives.
A typical example of such peculiarities is the use of the indefinite pronoun "all", since there are two ways to spell it: accompanied or not by the definite article (o, a).
The way in which we detect the right time to use it is by analyzing the context in which it was used. For this, some examples will provide us with subsidies, let's see:
He greeted everyone who passed by.
The semantic sense related to the pronoun “toda” refers to the idea of anyone who passed by.
The event organizer greeted everyone present.
Here, it denotes a sense of completeness of homogeneity.
Once this difference has been apprehended, we will move on to some particular cases in which we attribute the use of the aforementioned pronoun:
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
# When the pronoun "Todo" is in the plural (all) preceded by a numeral and a noun, we must use the definite article in the plural.
Examples:
- All four students achieved a great result in the assessment.
- All two colleagues won the competition.
# When there is a name in predicative function, the pronoun is dispensed with.
Example:
- Mariana had two dogs, all black.
Important note:
The pronoun will be inflected according to the subject when it plays the role of adverb:
The shoe was all stained.
The boys all arrived happy from the ride.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Brazil School Team
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
DUARTE, Vânia Maria do Nascimento. "The entire pronoun preceded or not by the article – Recurrent cases"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/o-pronome-todo-precedido-ou-nao-artigocasos-recorrentes.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
