Eat them all

[Winwin2011]

I want to ask my kid to finish up dinner. Can I say "eat them all" instead of "finish up our dinner ". And what is the difference between "eat them all" and " eat it all"?

Thx for your help!

[allenman]

I want to ask my kid to finish up dinner. Can I say "eat them all" instead of "finish up our dinner ". And what is the difference between "eat them all" and " eat it all"?

Thx for your help!

I would have said "Eat IT all" or "Finish up dinner"

eat it all means the collective of everything on the plate. eat them all might be said if, for example, there were three shrimp on the child's plate and he did not want to eat all three. You are being specific to the items on the plate in this case.

Not a teacher -- AmE native

[Winwin2011]

I would have said "Eat IT all" or "Finish up dinner"

eat it all means the collective of everything on the plate. eat them all might be said if, for example, there were three shrimp on the child's plate and he did not want to eat all three. You are being specific to the items on the plate in this case.

Not a teacher -- AmE native

Thx

If the kid is eating dinner alone. There are pork, vegetable and three shrimp on three different plates. Should I say " eat them all"?

[Rover_KE]

Thanks. (Please use standard English.)

There is pork, vegetable and three shrimp on three different plates. Should I say " eat them all"?

No. The child is not going to eat the plates, but the food on them.

As allenman said it's 'Eat it all'.

Rover

[Tdol]

I would only use the plural where necessary- if you told the child to eat the shrimps and he or she said they would eat one, then it's logical to say eat all of them/them all.

[Winwin2011]

I would have said "Eat IT all" or "Finish up dinner"

eat it all means the collective of everything on the plate. eat them all might be said if, for example, there were three shrimp on the child's plate and he did not want to eat all three. You are being specific to the items on the plate in this case.

Not a teacher -- AmE native

I am still a little bit confused. 1) eat it all means the collective of everything on the plate". 2)eat them all might be said if, for example, there were three shrimp on the child's plate .

Refer to "eat it all means the collective of everything on the plate", there may be a pork & three shrimps on the plate.Should the food be in plural or singular form? Should we still use eat it all? Does "three shrimp on the child's plate" equal to collective of everything ?

[SoothingDave]

If you are talking about all of the food, then say "eat it all." This would work for the situation where there are different types of food on one plate, or where the food is uncountable (e.g. mashed potatoes).

Talking about one particular, countable food you could say either "eat it all" or "eat them all."