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Thread: I know all or All I know.

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    Default I know all or All I know.

    Hello teachers,

    All I know.

    The above sentence is given as a answer.

    Is it correct to use all in the beginning of a sentence instead of using it like I know all.

    I think all can be used in the beginning only in the cases like All I know is .....

    Thank you.

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    Default Re: I know all or All I know.

    When you say, "All I know," it has a rather exclusive meaning. It implies that you are about to state the extent of your knowledge on a certain subject.

    When you say, "I know all," it has an absolute meaning. It implies that you know everything about a certain subject.

    In conversation, you will hear, "All I know..." as an introduction to a statement that means the speaker has knowledge about only a small subset of information under discussion.

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    Default Re: I know all or All I know.

    Quote Originally Posted by david11 View Post
    Hello teachers,

    All I know.

    The above sentence is given as a answer.

    Is it correct to use all in the beginning of a sentence instead of using it like I know all.

    I think all can be used in the beginning only in the cases like All I know is .....

    Thank you.
    Look, david, whether something is correct as an answer depends entirely on what the question is. I'm not sure whether it was you I mentioned this to; but surely you can see the point. You haven't given the question, so which of us can say whether "All I know" is a correct answer?

    But, to your question: yes, there are possible questions to which this is a correct answer. One, just out of the blue, might be, "What is one thing you are grateful for?"

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    Default Re: I know all or All I know.

    There are 1276 sentences containing 'All I know' in COCA. I read the first fifty, and they were almost all examples of: '...is all I know', 'all I know is ...' and 'for all I know'.

    There are 443 sentences containing 'I know all'. In the first fifty, there was one example of a self-standing clause - "I know all, but ...". All the others were 'I know all this/that', 'I know all (of) the + noun', 'I know all + noun', 'I know all about ...', or 'I know all my + noun' .
    Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.


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    Default Re: I know all or All I know.

    Quote Originally Posted by Raymott View Post
    Look, david, whether something is correct as an answer depends entirely on what the question is. I'm not sure whether it was you I mentioned this to; but surely you can see the point. You haven't given the question, so which of us can say whether "All I know" is a correct answer?
    Hello sir,

    This sentence is neither spoken by a native speaker nor spoken in an English conversation. In our country people mix there mother tongue with English.The question will be in one language and the answer will be in another language(one is there mother tongue and other is English).

    In some cases the answer will be natural in the language in which the question was asked but if we translate it into English it will look hard. My question is of that sort.

    A: If you don't like the color of your shirt you can change it using the bill.

    B; All I know.

    It looks little hard to me in English but in my mother tongue people speak this in informal conversation.

    So, is the sentence All I know correct in this context?

    Is there any other possibility to use All I know other than the form all I know is ....?


    Thank you.

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    Default Re: I know all or All I know.

    Quote Originally Posted by david11 View Post
    OK, thanks. This is much easier to answer now.

    A: If you don't like the color of your shirt you can change it using the bill.

    B; All I know.

    No, this dialog makes absolutely no sense in English.

    It looks little hard to me in English but in my mother tongue people speak this in informal conversation.

    So, is the sentence All I know correct in this context?
    No.
    Is there any other possibility to use All I know other than the form all I know is ....?
    Yes, I gave you one in my last post. But "All I know" obviously doesn't mean whatever you are translating it from in your own language. Language doesn't work that way.

    Thank you.
    You can't translate a colloquial phrase word by word from another language like this and expect it to make sense. You can't even translate a formal phrase word by word and expect it to make sense.
    bhaisahab and 5jj like this.

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    Default Re: I know all or All I know.

    Quote Originally Posted by Raymott View Post

    But, to your question: yes, there are possible questions to which this is a correct answer. One, just out of the blue, might be, "What is one thing you are grateful for?"

    What is one thing you are grateful for?

    All I know.


    I don't understand what it means.

    Does it mean that I grateful for all I know?

    Thank you.

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    Default Re: I know all or All I know.

    Quote Originally Posted by david11 View Post
    What is one thing you are grateful for?

    All I know.


    I don't understand what it means.

    Does it mean that I grateful for all I know?

    Thank you.
    It could mean "I am grateful for all I know".

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    Default Re: I know all or All I know.

    Quote Originally Posted by bhaisahab View Post
    It could mean "I am grateful for all I know".
    Yes I meant it. It was a typo.

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    Default Re: I know all or All I know.

    Quote Originally Posted by david11 View Post
    What is one thing you are grateful for?

    All I know.


    I don't understand what it means.

    Does it mean that I am grateful for all I know?

    Thank you.
    Yes it does. It would be an unusual thing to say, but you asked for an example, and I gave you one. However, the best thing would be to treat "All I know", by itself, as not being a correct English phrase for any common purpose.

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