To say each day, every person, all the children, both books, Dutch reaches for a small family of quantifiers — elk/elke, ieder/iedere, alle, al, allebei/beide — that look simple until you hit the contrast at the heart of the page: al het geld ("all the money") versus alle mensen ("all the people"). Same root al-, but one is uninflected and floats before the article, the other inflects and stands in the determiner slot. Sorting that out is the main job here. Along the way we'll fit in elk/elke (with its now-familiar het/de split) and the "both" words.
Elk and ieder: each / every
Elk and ieder both mean "each" or "every," and for everyday purposes they are near-synonyms — you can usually swap one for the other. They pick out individual members of a group one by one. Both follow the het/de split you already know from the articles and from welk/welke:
- elk / ieder — bare form, before a singular het-word: elk kind, ieder boek, elk jaar
- elke / iedere — -e form, before a singular de-word: elke dag, iedere maand, elke keer
| het-word | de-word | |
|---|---|---|
| each / every | elk kind, ieder jaar | elke dag, iedere week |
Elke dag neem ik de trein naar mijn werk.
Every day I take the train to work. (dag is a de-word → elke)
Ieder mens maakt wel eens een fout.
Everyone makes a mistake now and then. (literally 'every person'; mens → het in this fixed use → ieder)
Elk jaar gaan we met kerst naar mijn ouders.
Every year we go to my parents' for Christmas. (jaar is a het-word → elk)
Because they're distributive — singling out members one at a time — elk/ieder take a singular noun and a singular verb, even though they cover a whole group. Elke leerling heeft een boek ("each pupil has a book"), not "hebben."
Iedereen and elk standing alone
Iedereen ("everyone") is the standalone person-word built from ieder — it takes a singular verb: Iedereen is er ("everyone's here"). And elk/ieder can stand without a noun when context supplies it: Ze kosten een euro per stuk — neem er elk maar één ("they're a euro each — just take one each").
Iedereen is welkom op het feest.
Everyone is welcome at the party. (singular verb: is, not zijn)
Alle: all + plural
Alle means "all" before a plural noun (or a plural set of countable things). It sits in the determiner slot and ends in -e:
Alle kinderen kregen een diploma.
All the children got a certificate.
Alle winkels zijn op zondag dicht.
All the shops are closed on Sundays.
Heb je alle ramen dichtgedaan?
Did you close all the windows?
Alle already carries the "all" meaning by itself, so you don't add a separate article: it's alle kinderen, not "alle de kinderen."
Al: the floating, uninflected one
Now the crux. Al — bare, no -e — is a different beast from alle. It floats before an article, possessive or demonstrative, and it typically introduces a mass noun (or a definite plural). This is the predeterminer slot covered on Order of Determiners.
Al het geld is op.
All the money is gone. (al + het + mass noun geld — al stays bare)
Ze heeft al haar tijd in dat project gestoken.
She put all her time into that project. (al + possessive haar)
Al die moeite voor niets!
All that effort for nothing! (al + demonstrative die)
Al het geld vs alle mensen: the decisive contrast
Hold these two side by side, because this is the distinction the whole page turns on:
| al (uninflected, floating) | alle (inflected, determiner) | |
|---|---|---|
| followed by | article/possessive/demonstr. + (usually) mass/singular | a bare plural noun |
| example | al het geld, al de tijd, al mijn werk | alle mensen, alle dagen, alle boeken |
| meaning | all the (whole) X | all (the) Xs |
The clean test: is there an article (or possessive/demonstrative) right after? If yes → al (al het werk, al mijn vrienden). If the noun is a bare plural with nothing between → alle (alle vrienden, alle kinderen).
Al het werk is af, dus alle collega's mogen naar huis.
All the work is done, so all the colleagues can go home. (al het werk: al + article + mass; alle collega's: alle + bare plural — both in one sentence)
Alle mensen weten dat, maar niet al het bewijs is rond.
Everyone knows that, but not all the evidence is in. (alle mensen vs al het bewijs)
Allebei and beide: both
For "both," Dutch offers beide and allebei — overlapping but with different feels.
- beide — "both," slightly more formal/written; works as a determiner before a plural (beide boeken) or standalone (ze zijn beide goed). The variant beiden with -n is used when referring to people standing alone (zij waren beiden aanwezig).
- allebei — "both," more spoken and emphatic; it usually trails the noun phrase or stands alone, and it often combines with an article: allebei de boeken ("both the books"), ze komen allebei ("they're both coming").
Beide boeken zijn de moeite waard.
Both books are worth it. (beide directly before the plural — neutral/written)
Allebei de kinderen zijn ziek geworden.
Both children have fallen ill. (allebei + article + plural — everyday spoken)
Wil je koffie of thee? — Allebei, graag!
Do you want coffee or tea? — Both, please! (allebei standing alone)
Mijn ouders zijn beiden arts.
My parents are both doctors. (beiden with -n, referring to people on its own)
Allemaal: all of them (standalone)
Allemaal is the standalone "all" — "all of them," "the whole lot" — that doesn't sit in front of a noun but floats in the sentence, usually after the verb or the noun it refers back to. It's extremely common in speech.
Ze kwamen allemaal opdagen, niemand bleef thuis.
They all showed up; nobody stayed home.
De koekjes zijn allemaal op.
The biscuits are all gone.
Common Mistakes
❌ elke kind / elke jaar
Wrong — kind and jaar are singular het-words, so they take the bare elk: elk kind, elk jaar.
✅ elk kind / elk jaar
each child / every year
❌ elk dag / ieder week
Wrong — dag and week are de-words, so they take the -e form: elke dag, iedere week.
✅ elke dag / iedere week
every day / every week
❌ alle het geld / alle de tijd
Wrong — before an article you need the bare, floating al, not alle: al het geld, al de tijd.
✅ al het geld / al de tijd
all the money / all the time
❌ al mensen / al kinderen
Wrong — a bare plural takes the inflected alle, not al: alle mensen, alle kinderen. (al needs an article/possessive after it.)
✅ alle mensen / alle kinderen
all people / all children
❌ Iedereen zijn er. / Elke leerling hebben een boek.
Wrong — distributive/universal quantifiers take a SINGULAR verb: Iedereen is er; Elke leerling heeft een boek.
✅ Iedereen is er. / Elke leerling heeft een boek.
Everyone is here. / Each pupil has a book.
Key Takeaways
- Elk/ieder (= each/every) are near-synonyms with the het/de split: bare elk kind, ieder jaar; -e form elke dag, iedere week. They take a singular noun and verb.
- Alle = "all" before a bare plural, inflected with -e: alle mensen, alle dagen.
- Al = "all" that floats before an article/possessive/demonstrative, uninflected, usually before a mass noun: al het geld, al mijn werk, al die moeite.
- The decisive test: article right after → al (al het geld); bare plural → alle (alle mensen).
- Both = beide (neutral/written, beide boeken) or allebei (spoken, allebei de boeken); standalone person-form beiden.
- Iedereen ("everyone") and allemaal ("all of them") are the standalone forms, both taking a singular verb where relevant (iedereen is er).
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- Quantifiers: Veel, Weinig, Alle, Sommige, EnkeleA2 — The quantifying determiners — how much and how many. Veel (much/many) and weinig (little/few) collapse the English mass/count distinction and usually stay uninflected; alle (all) always takes -e; elk/elke and ieder/iedere (each/every) follow the het/de split; sommige, enkele, enige (some/a few) and beide (both) round out the set. A broad survey that routes to the deep elk/ieder/alle page.
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- De-words and Het-words: Noun GenderA1 — Dutch has a two-way gender system: common-gender de-words (about two-thirds of nouns, from the merged old masculine and feminine) and neuter het-words (a closed-ish minority worth memorising). Gender fixes the article, both demonstratives, the relative pronoun and the adjective ending — and the plural article is always de.