Todo is the Spanish workhorse for all, every, and the whole. It agrees fully in gender and number — todo, toda, todos, todas — and its position relative to the article controls its meaning: todo el día (the whole day) vs todos los días (every day) vs todo hombre (every man, universal). It pairs as the collective counterpart to the distributive cada and overlaps in places with both the definite article and the neuter lo. Despite its grammatical compactness, todo covers a remarkable amount of semantic territory.
This page covers the four forms, the three main constructions (todo + article + noun, todo + bare noun, todo as a standalone pronoun), the neuter abstract use, the contrast with cada, and the high-frequency idioms (todo el mundo, sobre todo, del todo, con todo).
The four forms
| Form | Use |
|---|---|
| todo | masculine singular |
| toda | feminine singular |
| todos | masculine plural (or mixed) |
| todas | feminine plural |
Todo agrees fully with the noun it modifies — both in gender and in number. This is the opposite of cada, which is invariable. The agreement is mechanical: feminine noun → toda / todas; masculine noun → todo / todos.
Todo el equipo está cansado después del partido.
The whole team is tired after the match. (masc. sg)
Toda la familia vino a la boda.
The whole family came to the wedding. (fem. sg)
Todos los días desayuno tostadas con tomate.
Every day I have toast with tomato for breakfast. (masc. pl)
Todas las semanas tenemos reunión los martes.
Every week we have a meeting on Tuesdays. (fem. pl)
Construction one: todo + article + noun — "the whole / every"
This is the canonical and most common pattern: todo sits in front of the definite article, with the noun following.
| Pattern | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| todo el + sg noun | the whole X | todo el día (the whole day) |
| toda la + sg noun | the whole X | toda la noche (the whole night) |
| todos los + pl noun | every X, all the X | todos los días (every day) |
| todas las + pl noun | every X, all the X | todas las semanas (every week) |
The singular reading is "the whole" — a single entity considered in its entirety. The plural reading is "every / all the" — a set of entities considered as a complete collection.
Trabajé todo el día sin parar para terminar el informe.
I worked the whole day without stopping to finish the report.
Estuvo lloviendo toda la noche y no pude dormir nada.
It rained the whole night and I couldn't sleep at all.
Mi abuela hace pan todos los domingos por la mañana.
My grandmother makes bread every Sunday morning.
Todas las tardes salgo a correr una media hora.
Every afternoon I go out for a half-hour run.
This is the default construction. When in doubt, use the article — todo el / toda la / todos los / todas las covers the vast majority of everyday "all / every / whole" situations.
Construction two: todo + bare noun — universal "every / any"
Without the article, todo + noun shifts from "the whole" to a more abstract universal: every X, any X, often with a flavour of generalisation about a category rather than a specific group.
Todo hombre tiene derecho a la educación.
Every man has a right to education.
Toda decisión importante debe tomarse con calma.
Every important decision should be made calmly.
Toda España se paró a ver la final del Mundial.
All of Spain stopped to watch the World Cup final.
This is the universal / generic reading. The noun is typically singular, the article is absent, and the sentence makes a claim about the category as a whole — every member, hypothetically, without singling out a particular group.
You'll find this construction in:
- Maxims and proverbs (todo perro guarda su hueso).
- Legal and formal writing (todo ciudadano debe respetar las leyes).
- Geographic and demographic universals (toda España, toda Europa).
- Abstract claims (toda obra de arte tiene su lector ideal).
For everyday "every day" or "every week," the article is mandatory: todos los días, not ❌todo día. The bare-noun construction is rare in casual speech and shouldn't be used as a default.
Construction three: todo as a standalone pronoun
When the noun is dropped, todo (and its inflected forms) can stand alone as a pronoun:
Todos vinieron a la fiesta menos Pablo.
Everyone came to the party except Pablo.
Todas las que conozco trabajan en el mismo sector.
All the ones I know work in the same sector.
Han llegado todos: pasad, pasad.
They've all arrived — come in, come in.
The agreement reflects the implicit referent's gender and number. Todos (masc. pl) is the unmarked default when the referent is mixed or unspecified — it covers "everyone" generically. Todas (fem. pl) is used when the referent is explicitly all-female.
The neuter todo: "everything"
When you want abstract "everything" — referring to all things, all matters, the totality of what's relevant — Spanish uses the masculine singular todo in a neuter-like function.
Lo sabe todo: no se le escapa nada.
She knows everything — nothing gets past her.
Todo está listo para la mudanza del sábado.
Everything is ready for Saturday's move.
No me lo digas todo de golpe, dosifícalo.
Don't tell me everything all at once — pace it out.
Notice the often-occurring redundant lo: lo sabe todo, me lo dijo todo, lo entiendo todo. The clitic lo anticipates the todo and reinforces the totalising sense. This pattern is everywhere in spoken Spanish; it sounds slightly clipped without it (sabe todo is grammatical but feels less natural than lo sabe todo).
Todo el mundo — the high-frequency "everyone"
The literal "all the world" is the standard peninsular way to say "everyone." It is extraordinarily common — more common in Spain than todos as a standalone pronoun for "everyone."
Todo el mundo sabe que en agosto Madrid se vacía.
Everyone knows that Madrid empties out in August.
No le digas nada porque después se entera todo el mundo.
Don't tell him anything because then everyone finds out.
Todo el mundo en la oficina está harto del nuevo software.
Everyone in the office is fed up with the new software.
Note: todo el mundo takes singular verb agreement (sabe, se entera, está) — grammatically the subject is el mundo, even though the meaning is plural. This is the same pattern as English "everyone is," not "everyone are."
Todo as adverb: "totally / completely"
Stuck before an adjective, todo can function as an intensifier meaning "totally" or "completely." Spanish grammars debate whether it agrees here; in practice it usually does, but some speakers leave it invariant.
Llegó toda mojada porque le pilló la lluvia sin paraguas.
She arrived completely soaked because she got caught in the rain with no umbrella.
El niño se puso todo rojo cuando se cayó de la bici.
The boy went completely red when he fell off his bike.
Estoy todo cansado, no he dormido en dos días.
I'm completely exhausted — I haven't slept in two days.
This adverbial todo + adjective is colloquial and intensive. In formal writing you'd substitute completamente or totalmente. In speech, todo + adjective is unmarked and common.
The big contrast: todo vs cada
This is the most important comparison on the page, and the inverse of what we said on the cada page:
| Construction | Meaning | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| todos los días | every day / all the days | collective — the whole set |
| cada día | each day (individually) | distributive — member by member |
| toda la clase | the whole class | collective — the group as one |
| cada estudiante | each student | distributive — student by student |
In casual speech the two often substitute for each other, but they shape the sentence differently. Use todos los X when the focus is on the totality of the set ("this applies to all of them"). Use cada X when the focus is on the individuality of each member ("each one is its own case").
Todos los días son distintos en este trabajo.
Every day is different in this job. (collective — making a statement about the totality)
Cada día trae un reto nuevo.
Each day brings a new challenge. (distributive — emphasising the individuality of each day)
The two sentences could appear in the same paragraph without contradiction. Todos los días names the set; cada día steps through it.
The idioms
A handful of todo expressions are so frequent they function as fixed units:
sobre todo — "above all / especially"
Me gusta el cine, sobre todo el europeo de los años setenta.
I like cinema, especially European cinema from the seventies.
Llévate paraguas, sobre todo si vas al norte.
Take an umbrella, especially if you're going north.
Always written as two words in modern Spanish: sobre todo. The compound ❌sobretodo is a noun meaning "overcoat," not the adverb.
del todo — "entirely / completely"
No estoy del todo convencido, pero lo intentaré.
I'm not entirely convinced, but I'll give it a try.
La obra no me gustó del todo, pero tuvo momentos buenos.
I didn't entirely like the play, but it had good moments.
Del todo is common in negated contexts ("not entirely"). Less common in affirmatives.
con todo — "even so / all things considered"
Estaba enfermo, y con todo, vino a trabajar.
He was sick, and even so, he came to work.
A slightly literary connector. In everyday speech, aun así or a pesar de todo are more common.
después de todo — "after all"
Después de todo, no era una idea tan mala.
After all, it wasn't such a bad idea.
en todo caso — "in any case"
En todo caso, mañana hablamos y decidimos.
In any case, we'll talk tomorrow and decide.
These idioms are formed with todo in the singular (no agreement) and have lexicalised meanings — treat them as units.
Todo with names of places, periods, and abstract nouns
A common pattern: todo + bare proper noun meaning "all of X":
Toda España celebró el aniversario de la Constitución.
All of Spain celebrated the anniversary of the Constitution.
Todo Madrid se va al campo en agosto.
All of Madrid heads for the countryside in August.
Toda la mañana he estado intentando llamarte.
I've been trying to call you all morning.
For city and country names (geographically feminine: España, Italia, Francia → toda; geographically masculine: Brasil, Perú → todo; cities follow their syntactic gender, often masculine by default — todo Madrid).
Todo in negation: "anything / at all"
In negative contexts, todo can carry the sense "anything":
No quiero saber nada de todo eso.
I don't want to know anything about all that.
No me ha contado nada de todo lo que pasó.
He hasn't told me anything about everything that happened.
The double presence of negation and todo doesn't cancel — they coexist, as is standard for Spanish negation.
Common Mistakes
❌ Todo las casas de la calle son antiguas.
Wrong — 'casas' is feminine plural, so 'todo' must agree: 'todas'.
✅ Todas las casas de la calle son antiguas.
All the houses on the street are old.
❌ Todo día voy al gimnasio.
Wrong in this everyday meaning — for 'every day' as a habit, you need the article: 'todos los días'.
✅ Todos los días voy al gimnasio.
Every day I go to the gym.
❌ Toda la mundo lo sabe.
Wrong — the fixed expression is 'todo el mundo' (masculine, with article). 'Mundo' is masculine, so 'todo el', not 'toda la'.
✅ Todo el mundo lo sabe.
Everyone knows it.
❌ Me gusta el cine, sobretodo el francés.
Spelling error — 'sobre todo' is two words when used as the adverb 'especially'. 'Sobretodo' as one word means 'overcoat'.
✅ Me gusta el cine, sobre todo el francés.
I like cinema, especially French cinema.
❌ Sabe todo: no se le escapa nada.
Off — in this pattern Spanish strongly prefers the redundant clitic 'lo' anticipating 'todo'. 'Sabe todo' is grammatical but feels clipped.
✅ Lo sabe todo: no se le escapa nada.
She knows everything — nothing gets past her.
Key takeaways
- Todo has four forms agreeing in gender and number: todo, toda, todos, todas.
- The default construction is todo + definite article + noun: todo el día, toda la noche, todos los días, todas las semanas.
- Without the article, todo + bare singular noun expresses a universal "every / any" — found in maxims, formal writing, and geographic universals (toda España).
- The collective vs distributive contrast with cada: todos los días sweeps up the set; cada día walks through it one by one.
- Todo el mundo is the standard peninsular "everyone," takes singular verb agreement, and is more common than standalone todos.
- Neuter todo = "everything," frequently paired with a redundant lo clitic: lo sabe todo, me lo contó todo.
- High-frequency idioms: sobre todo (especially, two words), del todo (entirely), con todo (even so), después de todo (after all), en todo caso (in any case).
- Adverbial todo + adjective (todo rojo, toda mojada) is colloquial intensification meaning "completely."
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Start learning Spanish→Related Topics
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- Otro, otra, otros, otrasA2 — Otro means 'another / other' — agrees fully in gender and number, and crucially never takes the indefinite article (it's *otro día*, never *un otro día*).
- Determinantes: visión generalA2 — The master inventory of Spanish determiners — articles, demonstratives, possessives, quantifiers, and the rest — all of which agree in gender and number with the noun they precede, and most of which compete for a single slot in the noun phrase.
- El neutro 'lo': lo bueno, lo importanteB1 — The neuter article lo + adjective creates abstract noun phrases — lo bueno (the good part), lo importante (the important thing). How it differs from el bueno, how it combines with adverbs and de + noun, and why English needs a paraphrase wherever Spanish reaches for lo.