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Zoltán Király Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Is all a preposition in "No, not at all"

Hello I have this conversation:

Question: Are you busy? ['?r j? 'b?zi?]
Answer: Not at all? ['no?, n?t?_?t?_?l]
t? - flap t (sounds like n?d?d?l) in American English.

In the answer, is "all" a preposition? Because I'm not sure where to put the stress in No, not all all.

Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.
  

Top answer

"at all" is an adverbial phrase. It's hard to know what "all" is individually, but I can't see that it can be a preposition. In "not at all", the main stress is on "all".

— GPY

  • "at all" is an adverbial phrase.
  • It's hard to know what "all" is individually, but I can't see that it can be a preposition.
  • In "not at all", the main stress is on "all".
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1 Answers
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"at all" is an adverbial phrase. It's hard to know what "all" is individually, but I can't see that it can be a preposition.

In "not at all", the main stress is on "all".
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