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Masanori Takaoka Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

all of one's ~ vs one's all ~

In spite of the firefighters’ bravery and skill, (A.all of their B.all to their C.by their D.their all) best efforts were of no use and the house burned down.

The answer is A, but why not D?
  

Top answer

In multiple-choice questions, often several of the answers seem feasible, and choosing the best answer can then be tricky. But here you're given a break because only A is feasible. B and C are ungrammatical.

— Anonymous

  • In multiple-choice questions, often several of the answers seem feasible, and choosing the best answer can then be tricky.
  • But here you're given a break because only A is feasible.
  • B and C are ungrammatical.
  • D is also ungrammatical: the group of words, "their all best efforts," cannot be used in (US) English, in any context.
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3 Answers
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In multiple-choice questions, often several of the answers seem feasible, and choosing the best answer can then be tricky. But here you're given a break because only A is feasible. B and C are ungrammatical. D is also ungrammatical: the group of words, "their all best efforts," cannot be used in (US) English, in any context.
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Masanori Takaoka In spite of the firefighters’ bravery and skill, (A.all of their B.all to their C.by their D.their all) best efforts were of no use and the house burned down.The answer is A, but why not D?
Because "their all best efforts" is just not the correct word order. "all their best efforts" is correct.
'all his good friends' correct
'his all
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Masanori TakaokaThe answer is A, but why not D?
It can't be D because the two determiners "their" and "all" are in the wrong order.

all and both always occur before any possessive (my, your, his, her, their, ...) when you want to use both of them. It's a rule of English grammar.

all my is correct. my all
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