Log inSign up

Il est indispensable de lire la totalité des documents.

Il est indispensable de lire la totalité des documents.
It is essential to read the entirety of the documents.
From Lesson 436:The pronouns all and everyone (tous, toutes)·French

Questions & Answers about Il est indispensable de lire la totalité des documents.

Could I use tous here instead of la totalité des?
Yes, you could say de lire tous les documents (to read all the documents). Using la totalité des (the entirety of the) is a bit more formal and emphasizes reading every single part of them, but the overall meaning is the same.
If I wanted to replace les documents with a pronoun to say 'read them all', how would I use tous?
You would say Il est indispensable de les lire tous. Because tous is acting as a pronoun here meaning 'all of them', it follows the rule from this lesson: you must pronounce its final 's' so it sounds like 'toos'.
Why is there a de between indispensable and lire?
The impersonal structure il est + adjective requires the preposition de before an infinitive verb. So, il est indispensable de is the standard grammatical way to say 'it is essential to'.
Why does it say des documents instead of de documents after totalité?
Here, des is the mandatory contraction of de + les. The expression is la totalité de (the entirety of), and because we are referring to the specific documents mentioned earlier (les documents), the de and les must combine into des.

Learn Il est indispensable de lire la totalité des documents and more in French

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning French →