'Tout', 'toute', 'tous', 'toutes' in French: agreement and exception

I've been caught out more than once by “tout”. One day I write “toute étonnée”, the next day I correct it to “tout étonnée”… then I doubt again. Good news: the rule can be summarized in a few lines, with only one real exception to remember.

Where to agree with “tout”

“Tout” has three common uses. As a determiner/adjective, it agrees. As a pronoun, it also agrees depending on the meaning. As an adverb (meaning “very”), it is generally invariable — except for a specific case we will see shortly.

• Determiner/adjective meaning “whole, complete”: tout lequartier, toute lasemaine, tous lesélèves, toutes lesidées.
• Pronoun: Tousarrived.Toutesresponded.Toutis fine (neutral, invariable here).
• Adverb (= “very”): generally invariable. E.g. They are touthappy; She speaks toutsoftly.

The adverbial exception (the real trap)

When “tout” is an adverb before a feminine adjective that starts with a consonant or a mute h, it agrees for euphonic reasons: toutein the singular, all in the plural. However, if it precedes an adjective starting with a vowel or a silent 'h', it remains invariable: all.

• Consonant (agreement): She is all small. / They are all small.
• Vowel (invariable): She is all surprised. / They are all surprised.
• aspirated h (agreement): She is all shameful. / They are all shameful. (No liaison with “shameful”.)
• silent h (invariable): She is all happy. / They are allhappy. (You may sometimes encounter “entirely happy” in usage, but the classical recommendation maintains invariability here.)

“All-powerful” or “all-powerful”?

There are two interpretations depending on the construction. With adverbial value before a feminine adjective starting with a consonant, we agree: all-powerful. In the lexicalized adjective “all-powerful” (often written with a hyphen), the agreement follows the feminine/plural of the whole: an all-powerful leader, an all-powerful female leader, all-powerful leaders, all-powerful female leaders.Finally, in the religious title the All-Powerful

, we have a fixed expression with capital letters; the usage is stabilized by written tradition.

Common pitfalls and strategiesThe hesitations mainly come from the ear: where the vowel “slides” (é-tonnée, heu-reuse), we often keep all invariable; where the consonant “blocks” (pe-tite, hon-teuse), we switch to all

• . When in doubt, return to the “very” test, then check the status of the h in a reliable dictionary.If “very” works and the feminine adjective starts with a consonant: write all/all
• .If “very” works and the feminine adjective starts with a vowel or a silent h: write all.
• If “very” does not work: you probably do not have the adverbial use; think determiner or pronoun and agree in gender/number.

My experience

At first, I systematically confused “all happy” and “all happy.” I ended up imagining a little switch in my head: consonant = we press, we “agree” (all); vowel = we let it flow, we “do not agree” (all). This silly memo saved me a lot of back-and-forth to the dictionary.

How to train yourself

Create minimal pairs and read them aloud: “tout étonnée / toute contente”, “tout heureuse / toute honteuse”, “tout puissant / toute puissante”. You can also insert these sequences into sentences that you conjugate to vary the contexts: it’s a great way to consolidate grammatical intuition. If you want to practice in a guided setting, open the conjugation module of Discus: the series of sentences force you to quickly identify the adverbial vs. determiner usage.see the page.

To go further

For a reliable foundation, consult a reputable dictionary that indicates the aspirated/mute h, and the reference notices. The classic recommendations on the agreement of “tout” are reiterated by the Académie française and detailed by the Banque de dépannage linguistique of the OQLF (Académie française, BDL – OQLF).