Both my sisters cook.

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Materials Daily News

All, Both, Each

Intermediate

This lesson will teach you to refer to individual items in a set and to entire sets.

Exercise 1

Sentence Practice

Both

My parents both passed away.
Both the movie and the play were good.
Both of my sisters are rich.

All

All the birds flew away.
Did you eat all of the cakes?
Not all the seats were taken.

Each

Each of the members has one vote.
Each student has a book.
Each of the children received a special gift.

Grammar Focus

Both

To refer to two things together, use 'both (noun/adjective) and (noun/adjective)'. Both is always plural.

The book and the movie were good.
→ Both the book and the movie were good.

	Haruto Did you like the book or the movie?
	Zach Both were good.

To refer to two people/things within the same group, use 'both (of) + (the/my/etc.) + plural noun'.

My two sisters are rich.
→ Both of my sisters are rich.
→ Both my sisters are rich.

We also use both with other verbs.

My parents both work in the same company.

and with modal verbs (can, should, would).

My parents can both speak English fluently.

All

'All' means 'including every one/part of a group'. We can use 'all' for:

Countable nouns: an entire group of people/things
Uncountable nouns: the entirety of something

For (1) countable nouns, 'all' is plural. For (2) uncountable nouns, 'all' is singular.

All the girls in the class are intelligent. (= 'Girl' is a countable noun, so in this sentence, 'All' is a plural.)
All the water in the pool is gone. (= 'Water' is an uncountable noun, so in this sentence, 'All' is a singular.)

Each

We use 'each' when we want to focus on the individual members of a group. When you go to a store to buy apples, you may see signs that say '$1 each'.