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