tous/tuz‿/
pronoun · A1 · Frequency 68704
pronounmasculine
Meanings
all
Used as a determiner or pronoun to indicate the whole or entirety of people or things.
everybody
Used as a pronoun referring to all people, common in both spoken and written language.
Examples
J'ai vérifié tous les dossiers avant de les envoyer.
I checked all the files before sending them.
Les invités ont tous reçu le programme à l'entrée.
All the guests received the program at the entrance.
Tous sont invités à participer à la réunion de quartier.
Everybody is invited to take part in the neighborhood meeting.
Collocations
- tous les joursevery day
- tous ensembleall together
- tous contentseveryone happy
Common mistakes
Tous les étudiants sont venus, mais tous n'ont pas participé.
Tous les étudiants sont venus, mais tous ne sont pas participés.
When 'tous' functions as a subject pronoun, the verb must agree in person and number; however, 'participer' is transitive here, and the incorrect past participle 'participés' lacks proper auxiliary and agreement — the intended meaning likely requires reflexive or passive construction.
Tous ont dit qu'ils viendraient.
Tout le monde a dit qu'il viendrait.
Using 'tous' alone as subject referring to people is common in informal speech but nonstandard; formal usage prefers 'tout le monde' with third-person singular verb agreement.