Learn Dutch: Alle donaties zijn welkom, maar al de opbrengst gaat naar het weeshuis. - All donations are welcome, but all the proceeds go to the orphanage.

This highlights the core difference between these quantifiers! We use alle directly before a plural noun to refer to a general group (all donations in general). We use al de or al het before a specific, definite noun. Here, opbrengst is a specific singular noun referring to the yield or the revenue of those donations, so it gets al de.

In English, the word proceeds is plural. Why does the Dutch sentence use the singular verb gaat?

While the English word proceeds is plural, the Dutch word opbrengst (meaning yield or revenue) is a singular noun. Because the subject is singular, the verb must also be singular, which is why we use gaat instead of gaan.

Why doesn't the word maar push the verb gaat to the end of the sentence?

The word maar (but) is a coordinating conjunction. This means it connects two normal, independent sentences without changing the word order of either one. In the second clause, the subject is al de opbrengst, and the verb gaat simply takes the standard second position.

How do we know weeshuis gets the article het?