Today I was writing a simple message to be shown to the user whenever at least one field was not supplied.
Every/All fields must be supplied.
I'm in doubt about the usage of Every vs All, which one do you think is the most appropriate here ?
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"Every" is more appropriate if you want sure that no field remain excluded. Yes, it is strange; but English is not like logic.– user19148Jul 9, 2012 at 20:23
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3But every is singular, so the plural on fields has to go. Otherwise they're the same.– John LawlerJul 9, 2012 at 20:49
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3 Answers
If you can get it, you should read Zeno Vendler's article "Each and Every, Any and All," (originally published in Vol LXXI, no. 282 of Mind, April 1962; and reprinted in his 1967 book Linguistics in Philosophy).
Vendler goes through this set of English quantifiers and shows their differences and similarities. I don't have my copy handy, so I'll just list a few differences here. These are all universal quantifiers, by the way.
Although they are semantically plural, each and every are grammatically singular,
while all is grammatically plural.- Each student has a passing grade.
- Every student has a passing grade.
- All students have a passing grade.
each and all are subject to Quantifier-float, but every isn't.
(Note that Q-float with each requires a plural subject and verb, instead of singular.)- Each student passed the course. ~ The students each passed the course.
- All students passed the course. ~ The students all passed the course.
- Every student passed the course. ~ *The student(s) every passed the course.
as quantifiers, each, every, and all have quite different determiner constructions.
- all men, all the men, all of the men, all of them, all N of them (N > 2)
- each man, *each the men, each of the men, each of them, each one of them
- every man, *every the man, *every of the man, *every of them, every one of them.
... and, as lagniappe, all, with N = 2, is a quantifier and floats, but doesn't use all. Instead of *all two of them, we say both of them; instead of *The twins all left we say The twins both left.
answered Jul 9, 2012 at 20:48
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Great answer. It is a lesson of grammar. Thank you +1– user19148Jul 9, 2012 at 20:50
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Unknown in British English: Lagniappe: Something given over and above what is purchased, earned, etc., to make good measure or by way of gratuity. (OED) Sep 16, 2021 at 15:00
It's a matter of number agreement. Either of these are acceptable:
Every field must be supplied.
All fields must be supplied.
You could also say each field must be supplied.
I must say that I disagree with field and supplied together. The user is supplying information, not fields. May I suggest:
Each field/All fields must be completed?
answered Jul 9, 2012 at 20:27
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I understand your point of view though "supplied" here is the most used expression, I guess.– utxeeeJul 9, 2012 at 20:42
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I'd agreed with cornbread ninja. Supplied here indicates that the fields must be made available. For example, "When creating a form for your customers to fill out, make sure that all of these fields are supplied." However, I suppose you could say "All fields must be supplied with an answer."– DeanJul 10, 2012 at 1:35
I was gonna say what cornbread said, but then I realized he already said it. The word "supplied" is the reason for the ambiguity. If "completed" doesn't float your boat you could always put "Each field must contain a response".
