Episode 67: All of Us, None of Them

all/most/some/any/none + of — French Revolution, 1789 (B1-B2)

Grammar Box

Meaning: These quantifiers + “of” express amounts within specific groups. They answer “how many of this particular group?” and require different verb forms depending on what follows.

Form: all/most/some/any/none + of + the/these/those/possessive + plural noun. Verb agrees with the noun: “All of the people are” but “All of the food is.”

Example 1: “Most of the protestors wanted reform, not revolution.” (Quantifying within a specific group of protestors.)

Example 2: “None of us expected the outcome that actually occurred.” (Quantifying within our specific group.)

Common mistake: Wrong: “All of students agreed.” Better: “All of the students agreed” or “All students agreed.” (Need “the/these/my” after “of” or remove “of.”)

The Challenge

Luna studied a history text. “Professor, why do writers say ‘all of the people’ sometimes and just ‘all people’ other times? And when should I use ‘none of them’ versus ‘nobody’?”

The watch glowed like revolutionary fire. Professor Wisdom appeared with intense focus. “The difference between ‘all’ and ‘all of’ can be the difference between speaking about humanity in general and speaking about a specific group at a specific moment. Let me show you a crowd where every quantifier mattered.”

The Journey

Paris, July 14, 1789. The Bastille fortress loomed before a crowd of nearly a thousand Parisians who had reached their breaking point. All of the city’s poor neighborhoods had sent representatives, some of them armed with whatever tools they could find. Most of the crowd had never held weapons before today, yet none of them showed any intention of backing down.

This was a group united by desperation. All of France was suffering from bread shortages that made feeding families impossible. Most of the nation’s wealth belonged to nobility who paid almost no taxes. Some of the aristocrats showed sympathy for the people’s suffering, but none of them offered real solutions. Any of the reforms that reformers proposed faced opposition from those who benefited from the current system.

The revolutionaries faced a regime that had crushed dissent for centuries. All of the previous protests had ended in arrests and executions. Most of the crowd knew that attacking a royal fortress meant risking their lives. Some of the people wavering in the back might have turned away if they could, but none of the leaders would allow retreat now. The momentum had become unstoppable.

A merchant named Pierre stood among them. Most of his neighbors were here, including some of the women who usually worked quietly at home. All of the local craftsmen had closed their shops to join the march. None of the wealthy merchants from the better districts had come — this was a movement of those who had nothing left to lose. Any of the soldiers defending the fortress could have been their cousins or brothers; many came from the same poor backgrounds.

The summer air smelled of sweat and gunpowder, of the fear that precedes irrevocable action. You could hear the roar of hundreds of voices demanding surrender, the crack of musket fire from both sides, the crash of doors being battered down. All of the pent-up rage of decades found release in this single moment when ordinary people decided that some of them dying was better than all of them starving.

The Deep Dive

Use quantifiers + “of” when referring to specific, defined groups: “all of these students,” “most of my friends,” “some of the money.” The “of” requires a determiner (the/these/my) before the noun. Without “of,” you can use the quantifier directly: “all students,” “most people,” “some money” — these refer to the general category, not a specific group.

Verb agreement follows the noun after “of”: “All of the water is” (singular noun, singular verb) but “All of the students are” (plural noun, plural verb). This causes confusion with “none of” because “none” originally meant “not one,” but modern English accepts both: “None of the students is ready” (formal) or “None of the students are ready” (common usage). Both are correct.

None versus any: Use “none of” in positive statements meaning zero: “None of them arrived.” Use “any of” in negatives and questions: “I don’t have any of the answers,” “Do you have any of the materials?” You cannot say “I don’t have none” in standard English — that’s a double negative. Say “I don’t have any” or “I have none.”

More Examples

History: “Most of the American colonists initially wanted reform, not independence; none of them anticipated the full revolution that would follow.”

Science: “All of the planets orbit the sun, but some of them rotate in the opposite direction to most of the others.”

Everyday: “Some of my colleagues work remotely; none of them miss the daily commute that all of us used to endure.”

Formal: “Most of the research participants completed the study, though some of them withdrew for personal reasons unrelated to the intervention.”

Informal: “All of us wanted pizza, but none of the delivery places were open, so some of us went to pick it up.”

Contrast: “All students must register” (general rule) vs. “All of the students in this class must register” (specific group).

Practice & Reflection

Exercises:

1. Fill in the blank: “_____ of the revolutionaries expected the day to end with the fortress captured.”

2. Correct the mistake: “Most of people supported the revolution, but some of people wanted gradual reform.”

3. Choose and explain: Which is more specific?
   a) “Some protestors were peaceful.”
   b) “Some of the protestors were peaceful.”

4. Rewrite: Make this more specific using “of”: “Most citizens supported change.”

5. Compare: What’s the difference? “None of them succeeded” vs. “They didn’t succeed.”

6. Your reflection: Write about a group you belong to using at least three different quantifiers + of (all of, most of, some of, none of).

Answer Key:
1. None or Few — emphasizes that the outcome surprised everyone
2. Add “the” after “of”: “Most of the people… some of the people” (or remove “of”)
3. (b) is more specific — refers to a particular group of protestors, not protestors in general
4. “Most of the citizens supported change” (specifies which citizens)
5. First emphasizes zero success within a specific group; second is more general
6. Check: Did you use “the/these/my” after “of”? Does the verb agree with the noun?

The Lesson

Luna wrote in her notebook. “All of the revolutionaries risked their lives. Most of them never imagined what would follow. Some of them would die in the violence that came next. None of them could stop what they had started.”

“Perfect,” Professor Wisdom said. “You see how each quantifier tells a different story about the same group. All of them were there, but each quantifier reveals a different truth about their knowledge, their fate, their power.”

“And without ‘of,’ it becomes more general?” Luna asked.

“Exactly. ‘All revolutionaries throughout history’ speaks broadly. ‘All of the revolutionaries at the Bastille that day’ speaks specifically about those individuals. The French Revolution began when enough of the people decided that none of them could tolerate the system anymore. That specific moment, that specific group, changed everything.”