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Cheat sheet

Tout, tous, toute, toutes: a French agreement cheat sheet

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

Choose the four forms before nouns, compare all day with every day, and separate everything from everyone. Includes picture cards and five questions.

In short

Before a noun, match tout to its gender and number: tout le livre, toute la page, tous les livres, toutes les pages. On its own, tout can mean everything. Tout le monde means everyone and takes a singular verb.

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A small group ready to begin a French community workshop, all seated with plain closed notebooks and no writing.
Tout le monde est prêt uses a singular verb. Illustration: Atelier

Tout · quatre formes et trois emplois

1 · Masculine nouns

Choose singular tout or plural tous. Keep the determiner between the form and the noun.

tout le livrethe whole book
tous les livresall the books
tous mes livresall my books

2 · Feminine nouns

Choose singular toute or plural toutes.

toute la pagethe whole page
toutes les pagesall the pages
toutes ces pagesall these pages

3 · A whole period or a repeated one

A singular period covers its whole length. A plural expression can give a routine.

Je travaille toute la journée.I work all day.

Je travaille tous les jours.I work every day.

Nous nous voyons toutes les semaines.We see each other every week.

4 · Everything or everyone

Both expressions below take a singular verb.

Tout est prêt.Everything is ready.

Tout le monde est prêt.Everyone is ready.

5 · All the people already mentioned

Use plural tous or toutes for a group. In Ils sont tous là, the final s is pronounced: /tus/. In tous les jours, it is silent: /tu/.

Les participants sont tous là.The participants are all here.

Les participantes sont toutes là.The female participants are all here.

When do you use tout, tous, toute or toutes?

The noun tells you the form

Can tout mean “very”?

In tout doucement (very gently) and tout simplement (quite simply), tout strengthens an adverb and stays unchanged. Before a feminine adjective beginning with a vowel, it stays unchanged too: elle est tout étonnée. Before a feminine adjective beginning with a consonant, it agrees: elle est toute contente. For the noun exercises below, use the four noun-agreement forms.

Question 1No account needed
Match the feminine plural noun.Elle vérifie ___ les adresses.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

toutes. Adresses is feminine plural, so toutes agrees with the noun.

Question 2No account needed
Choose the singular verb.Tout le monde ___ là.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

est. Tout le monde means everyone, but its grammar is singular: est.

Question 3No account needed
Which phrase means every week?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

toutes les semaines. The plural phrase toutes les semaines describes a recurring week. The singular means the whole week.

Question 4No account needed
Match a masculine singular noun.J’ai lu ___ le message.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

tout. Message is masculine singular, so use tout le message.

Question 5No account needed
Which pronunciation fits pronoun tous here?Ils sont tous là.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

/tus/, with the final s.. Here tous refers back to the whole group of people, so its final s is heard.

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