alle vs alles: Everything you need to know about all and everything in German

Alles? Alle? Allem? Allen? Is this one word being declined or many words that look similar? If you don’t know, read this post.

Let’s talk about two little words “alles” and “alle” and figure out why picking the right one seems to be so troublesome for German learners like yourself.

Same Word Different Form or Different Word All Together? 

At first glance, these two words both look like the English word “all” and the last letter or two are probably just decided by the gender of nouns or whether or not Venus is in retrograde or something. In reality, only one of these words is usually translated with the English word “all”. The other one is usually “everything”.

“alles” is “everything” and “alle” is “all”.

All right. That’s it folks. Lesson over. Pack it up… wait… that wasn’t clear enough? Alright fine. Let’s see how they are used and break it down.

Alle as an article

Ich lese alle Bücher von Angelika Bohn. -
I read all of the books by Angelika Bohn.
Ich mag diese Bücher. Ich habe sie alle gelesen. -
I like these books. I have read them all.

In the first example “alle” is a kind of article usually called “additional der-words” in German courses, but only because calling them definite articles would confuse students.

No matter what you call them, it is a little word that you use in front of a noun to grant that noun a certain amount of specificity. In this case, all of the things within the category defined in the sentence.

As with all other kinds of articles, the ending has to change based on the noun to which it refers. So, how did I come up with the E at the end of the second example? There is no noun after “alle”. Where did this decision come from?

In that sentence “alle” is referring back to the books in the first sentence. Since they are plural, I used the plural ending at the end of “all”, i.e. “alle”.

This does mean that “alle” is not always “alle”. It can be “aller”, “allen”, “allem” or even “alles”.

Er schiebt mit aller Kraft, aber die Tür öffnet nicht. -
He pushes with all of his might, but the door doesn’t open.

Sie teilt ihre Schokoladen mit allen Kindern. -
She shares her chocolates with all of the children.

Wie wollen Sie Ihren Döner? Mit allem? -
How do you want your Döner? With everything?

Ja, ich möchte alles darauf. -
Yes, I want everything on it.

In the first example, “aller” is in the dative case due to “mit” and the word “Kraft” is feminine, so we used the ending -er. In the second example, children are plural, so in the dative case after “mit” we used “allen” with -en.

That’s all well and good, but the last two don’t have nouns to which we are referring. What is going on here? This is actually our friendly foe “alles”.

What is alles? 

This word is kind of a placeholder for when we want to say “all of that stuff”, but we don’t want to explicitly list what the stuff is. In the case of a Döner, “alles” refers to the vegetables, sauces and other extras that go inside the pita. Rather than saying, “alle Gemüsearten”, “alle Soßen” and “alle Zutaten”, you use the generic “everything” or “alles”.

That’s exactly what “everything” is in English, too. It is a nebulous indistinct grouping of stuff that includes all of that stuff, but what that stuff is, cannot be defined or it is simply inconvenient to do so. Here is another example:

A: Woher weißt du das? -
How do you know that?
B: Ich höre alles. -
I hear everything.

What is this “everything” that this person hears? All of the gossip. All of the chatter. All of the snide comments. All of the things you thought were secret. It is not only inconvenient to list all of that out, but it is more ominous if I simply say “everything” or “alles” and leave it up to the listener’s imagination.

To boil it down, the difference between alles and alle is simple.

Do we have a defined group of things of which we are choosing all? If so, we need “all-” plus an ending that fits the group and/or the gender. Do we have a nondescript group of stuff that we don’t care to get into the specifics of? Then we need “alles” or, if it is dative, “allem”.

I cover these words in a whole lot more detail in my new book "Mastering the German Case System. You can get your copy as an ebook here or as a paperback book via Amazon*. 

*Amazon links are affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of those links, Herr Antrim will make a small commission from the sale. This does not cost you extra, but does help to support Herr Antrim's work. 

Shallow German Deep Dives

I hope this sheds some light on this little grammar thing. This lesson is a part of a series called "Shallow German Deep Dives" in which I go into deep detail with a topic that on the surface seems pretty small. You can find other lessons in this series linked below. 

alle vs alles

eins vs eines vs ein

in vs im 

sie vs sie vs Sie 

Modal Particles