All, Both, Half
These words can be used in the following ways:
| ALL + |
1 2 3 4a 4b |
- the my, your, etc. this, that these, those |
Uncountable noun or Countable noun in the plural Uncountable noun Countable noun in the plural |
|
Examples |
|
| 1. | All cheese contains protein All children need affection |
| 2. | All the people in the room were silent. Have you eaten all the bread? |
| 3. | I've invited all my friends to the party. I've been waiting all my life for this opportunity. |
| 4a. | Who's left all this paper on my desk? |
| 4b. | Look at all those balloons! |
| BOTH + |
1 2 3 4 |
- the Compare: Punctuation |
Non-defining relative clauses are always separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. The commas have a similar function to brackets: |
|
Examples |
|
| 1. | Both children were born in Italy. |
| 2. | He has crashed both (of) the cars. |
| 3. | Both (of) my parents have fair hair. |
| 4 | You can take both (of) these books back to the library. See note below |
|
HALF + |
1 2 3 4 |
a the Thing Place |
Uncountable or Object |
|
Examples |
|
| 1. | I bought half a kilo of apples yesterday. |
| 2. | You can have half (of) the cake. She gave me half (of) the apples. |
| 3. | I've already given you half (of) my money. Half (of) his books were in French. |
| 4 | Half (of) these snakes are harmless You can take half (of) this sugar. |
NOTE: All, both, half + OF: 'OF' must be added when followed by a pronoun:
All of you; both of us; half of them
It is also quite common to add it in most of the above situations except when there is no article (No.1 in all the tables above.)