All in Dutch: al, alle, alles, allen, allemaal

So when an English-speaking student is learning the Dutch translation for ‘all’, all hell breaks loose. How do you explain to a student there are five (!) ways to translate ‘all’?

Let’s see them all:

1. Is that all?
2. All are here. (as in people)
3. All people are here.
4. All the people are here.
5. We are all here.

All as in everything

If you can replace the ‘all’ by everything, you use ‘alles’.

• Is dat alles? (Is that all)

All as in everyone

If you can replace the ‘all’ by everyone, you use ‘allen.’ You can also use iedereen.

• Allen zijn hier. (all are here)

All plus nouns

When you’re using all plus a noun, you use ‘alle.’ There’s nothing standing between de ‘all’ and the noun.

• Alle mensen zijn hier. (all people are here)

All plus article plus nouns

If there’s an article or a pronoun (this, that) in between the all and the nouns, it’s ‘al.’

• Al de mensen zijn hier. (all the people are here)

All separated from the noun

When all stands behind the noun, use ‘allemaal’. Allen can also be used in case of people.

• We zijn allemaal hier.  (we are all here)

Exercises

(words: de studenten, de leraars, werken met, naar België, was, het)

1. All students go to Belgium.
2. The students all go to Belgium.
3. All go to Belgium.
4. All teachers work with all the students.
5. Was it all, students?

Solutions

1. Alle studenten gaan naar België.
2. De studenten gaan allemaal naar België.
3. Allen gaan naar België.
4. Alle leraars werken met al de studenten.
5. Was het alles, studenten?