Tout is one of the most overworked words in French. It is a pronoun ("everything"), a determiner ("the whole," "all the," "every"), and an adverb ("completely," "very") — sometimes all in the same paragraph. It has four written forms (tout, tous, toute, toutes) governed by different agreement rules depending on which role it is playing. And the masculine plural form tous has two pronunciations that change with grammatical role: silent s when tous is a determiner before a noun, audible s (/tus/) when tous is a free-standing pronoun.
This page focuses on tout as a pronoun — the use you reach for when you want to say "everything" or "everyone" without specifying further. We will touch the determiner and adverb roles to keep them straight, but the deep treatment of those uses lives on the determiner-side pages.
Tout as pronoun: everything
The neutral, free-standing form is tout — invariable masculine singular, meaning "everything." This is the form you use when you do not need to track gender or number; you are speaking about a totality, a generality, an indefinite mass.
Tout va bien, ne t'inquiète pas.
Everything's fine, don't worry.
Je sais tout ce qui s'est passé hier soir.
I know everything that happened last night.
Il a tout perdu dans l'incendie — sa maison, ses livres, tout.
He lost everything in the fire — his house, his books, everything.
C'est tout, merci.
That's all, thank you.
In compound tenses, tout as a direct object usually goes between the auxiliary and the past participle, like rien and pas: J'ai tout vu (not J'ai vu tout). This is the position of an adverbial clitic, not a noun phrase.
J'ai tout compris dès la première minute.
I understood everything from the first minute.
Elle a tout préparé pour la fête.
She prepared everything for the party.
On a tout essayé, mais rien n'a marché.
We tried everything, but nothing worked.
With an infinitive, tout slips between the conjugated verb and the infinitive: Je veux tout savoir (I want to know everything). Same logic — tout is treated like a clitic adverb here.
Tous and toutes as pronouns: all of them
When you want to say "all of them" — referring to a specific group rather than to "everything" in the abstract — you use the plural pronouns tous (masculine, mixed) or toutes (feminine). These are the inflected pronoun forms.
Mes amis ? Ils sont tous venus à mon anniversaire.
My friends? They all came to my birthday party.
Les filles sont toutes parties tôt ce matin.
The girls all left early this morning.
J'ai lu ses romans, je les ai tous adorés.
I've read her novels — I loved them all.
Ces tomates ? Je les prends toutes.
These tomatoes? I'll take them all.
The pattern: tous / toutes sit either right after the subject pronoun (in apposition) or after the verb (in apposition to a direct object). The form tous is masculine plural and serves for any group that includes at least one masculine member.
The pronunciation split: silent vs spoken s
Here is where French plays a small trick. The form tous is written the same way in two grammatical roles, but pronounced differently:
- As a determiner (before a noun, e.g. tous les jours), the s is silent: /tu le ʒuʁ/.
- As a pronoun (standalone, e.g. ils sont tous là), the s is pronounced: /il sɔ̃ tus la/.
Tous les jours, je prends le métro à huit heures.
Every day, I take the metro at eight o'clock.
Mes collègues ? Ils sont tous là.
My colleagues? They're all here.
Tous les enfants chantaient en chœur.
All the children were singing together.
Les enfants chantaient tous en chœur.
The children were all singing together.
In the first sentence of each pair, tous is followed by an article + noun — pronounced /tu/, silent s. In the second sentence of each pair, tous stands alone after the verb — pronounced /tus/, audible s. This is one of the few places where French preserves a phonological distinction in a written homograph.
The feminine toutes is always pronounced /tut/ regardless of role — the silent-s rule only applies to the masculine tous.
Tout as determiner: tout le, tous les, toute la, toutes les
Briefly, since this page focuses on the pronoun: tout before an article + noun is a determiner meaning "all the" or "the whole." Four forms:
| Form | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| tout le | masculine singular | tout le livre (the whole book) |
| toute la | feminine singular | toute la journée (the whole day) |
| tous les | masculine plural | tous les jours (every day, all the days) |
| toutes les | feminine plural | toutes les filles (all the girls) |
J'ai lu tout le livre en une nuit.
I read the whole book in one night.
Elle a passé toute la journée à étudier.
She spent the whole day studying.
Je vais à la piscine tous les jours.
I go to the pool every day.
Toutes les portes étaient fermées à clé.
All the doors were locked.
The determiner tout always agrees with the noun it qualifies. With singular nouns, the meaning leans toward "the whole" (toute la pizza = the whole pizza). With plurals, it leans toward "all" or "every" (tous les étudiants = all the students, tous les matins = every morning).
Tout as adverb: very, completely
Tout before an adjective or adverb means "completely," "totally," or "very." This is a third grammatical role, with its own quirky agreement rules: it is invariable except before a feminine adjective beginning with a consonant, where it agrees in gender and number for euphony.
Le bébé est tout petit.
The baby is very small.
Elle est toute contente de ses résultats.
She's completely happy with her results.
Les enfants étaient tout étonnés de la nouvelle.
The children were completely surprised by the news.
Les filles sont toutes pâles ce matin.
The girls are all pale this morning.
In the third example, tout étonnés stays masculine because étonnés begins with a vowel. In the fourth, toutes pâles agrees because pâles begins with a consonant. This rule is genuinely unintuitive — even native speakers get it wrong in writing — and there is no logical shortcut. It is a quirk of French euphony preserved by tradition.
Idiomatic compounds with tout
Tout appears in dozens of high-frequency fixed expressions. These are worth memorizing as units rather than parsing morphologically.
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| tout le monde | everyone, everybody |
| tous les jours | every day |
| toute la journée | all day long |
| toutes les semaines | every week |
| en tout | in total, all in all |
| pas du tout | not at all |
| tout à fait | absolutely, exactly |
| tout à l'heure | a little while ago / in a moment |
| tout d'un coup | suddenly, all at once |
| tout de suite | right away, immediately |
| tout le temps | all the time |
Tout le monde est arrivé en retard à cause de la grève.
Everyone arrived late because of the strike.
Pas du tout — ça ne me dérange absolument pas.
Not at all — it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Tout à fait d'accord avec ce que tu viens de dire.
Completely agree with what you just said.
Je l'ai vu tout à l'heure dans le couloir.
I saw him a moment ago in the corridor.
Tout d'un coup, le ciel s'est obscurci et la pluie a commencé.
All of a sudden, the sky darkened and the rain began.
A note on tout le monde: it takes a third-person singular verb, not plural, even though it means "everyone" / "everybody" — tout le monde est venu, not tout le monde sont venus. This is grammatical singular agreement: monde is singular, the verb agrees with monde. The same applies to toute la classe, toute l'équipe, etc.
Tout le monde sait que Paris est cher.
Everyone knows Paris is expensive.
Toute la classe a échoué à l'examen.
The whole class failed the exam.
Tous / toutes as appositive emphasis
A characteristic French construction places tous or toutes in apposition to the subject pronoun, often after the verb, to mean "all of us / you / them."
Nous sommes tous d'accord sur ce point.
We all agree on this point.
Vous êtes toutes invitées à la cérémonie.
You are all invited to the ceremony.
Ils ont tous voté contre la proposition.
They all voted against the proposal.
Elles partent toutes ensemble en vacances.
They are all leaving on vacation together.
This is different from English "all of us / all of them" — French uses an appositive tous / toutes rather than a quantified pronoun. The position is typically right after a simple verb, between auxiliary and participle in compound tenses (Ils ont *tous voté), or after the conjugated verb if there is an infinitive (Ils veulent **tous partir*).
Common mistakes
❌ Tout le monde sont venus.
Incorrect — tout le monde takes singular verb.
✅ Tout le monde est venu.
Everyone came.
Tout le monde always takes 3rd-person singular agreement, even though the meaning is plural.
❌ J'ai vu tout.
Incorrect — tout as direct object goes between auxiliary and participle.
✅ J'ai tout vu.
I saw everything.
In compound tenses, tout as a direct object pronoun sits between auxiliary and past participle. Same position as rien, pas, plus, jamais.
❌ Ils sont [silent s] tous là.
Incorrect pronunciation — pronoun tous has audible s.
✅ Ils sont [/tus/] tous là.
They are all here. (with audible /s/ in tous)
When tous is a standalone pronoun, the s is pronounced /s/. Only the determiner form (before les, mes, etc.) keeps the s silent.
❌ Toute le monde est arrivé.
Incorrect — tout le monde is fixed; do not feminize.
✅ Tout le monde est arrivé.
Everyone arrived.
The phrase tout le monde is fixed: tout (masculine singular) + le monde (the world). It does not change form even when the people in question are mostly women. Toute le monde is wrong.
❌ Tous les jours [with audible s]
Incorrect pronunciation — determiner tous has silent s.
✅ Tous [/tu/] les jours
Every day (with silent s in tous)
The reverse pronunciation error: when tous is a determiner before les, the s is silent. Pronouncing it as /tus/ marks you as a learner.
Key takeaways
Tout has three grammatical roles: pronoun, determiner, and adverb. As pronoun: tout (everything, neuter), tous / toutes (all of them, plural with gender). The masculine plural pronoun tous is pronounced /tus/ with audible s; the determiner tous les keeps the s silent — same spelling, two pronunciations. In compound tenses, tout as direct object goes between auxiliary and past participle: j'ai tout vu. Fixed expressions (tout le monde, pas du tout, tout à fait, tout de suite) are best learned as units. Tout le monde always takes singular verb agreement.
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