Agreement & negation · CEFR B2 · Confident

not all, not always — English subject verb agreement

Where the negative sits changes how much it denies. "Not all of them came" is not the same as "none of them came".

The shape

not all · not everyone · not always

Say "some, but not all" without saying "none".

In Hindi

नकार कहाँ रखा है, उसी से तय होता है कितना नकारा गया। "not all" और "none" एक बात नहीं है।

CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.

The mistake to fix first

The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.

Commonly said	Correct English
All the students did not pass, so nobody passed.	Not all the students passed, but most did. "All … did not" is ambiguous — for "some did not", put the "not" first.

Commonly said

Correct English

All the students did not pass, so nobody passed.

Not all the students passed, but most did.

"All … did not" is ambiguous — for "some did not", put the "not" first.

Learn these first

These come first. The rest of this makes more sense once they are automatic.

no, not, none, neverB1Say no without using two negatives at once

Questions people ask

What is the not all, not always used for?: Where the negative sits changes how much it denies. "Not all of them came" is not the same as "none of them came". In practice: say "some, but not all" without saying "none".
How do you form the not all, not always?: not all · not everyone · not always.
What is the most common mistake with the not all, not always?: Saying “All the students did not pass, so nobody passed.” instead of “Not all the students passed, but most did.”. "All … did not" is ambiguous — for "some did not", put the "not" first.

Where not all, not always fits

Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.

not all, not always is a CEFR B2 structure — the confident band — and it belongs to agreement & negation. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.

Reading it is not the same as saying it.

CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.

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