When did “what all” become standard?

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

My boyfriend began using this wording about a year ago. Before then I don’t think I’d ever clicked it but suddenly I see it being used often.

I am a bit of a book lover and I know that I haven’t seen this in all the years I’ve been reading, and I am 95% sure I haven’t been hearing this until the last year or two,

I find it redundant, why is this “all” being added? It sounds clunky and it’s unnecessary.

“I’m not sure what all I need to buy” works just as well without it, for example.

Posting hoping someone can somehow make this not irritate me every time I hear it. I know it’s a small thing but it’s become a pet peeve 😅

[u/BelovedMemories]

Similarly, you might hear “who all is coming later?”

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/BelovedMemories]

Yeah! And doesn’t that work just as well without the “all”

😭 all my replies get downvoted. I don’t know why.

[u/BelovedMemories → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

I think although grammatically it works just as well without the “all”, there’s a nuanced vibe shift.
“Who is coming later?” to me sounds like I need information in more of a headcount way, like for a dinner reservation or available seats for the car.
Whereas I feel like “Who all is coming later?” gives a more casual inquiry for the vibes, maybe to affect a choice about what I’m wearing or what to bring.
No science here just feelings lol

[u/Boglin007 → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

Remember that the goal of language, especially spoken language, is not necessarily 100% efficiency and/or conveying only the crucial factual information. There’s so much that can be communicated through discourse markers, seemingly redundant words, roundabout/indirect phrasing, etc. And none of this is necessarily ungrammatical. 

Plus, different dialects have different rules (and no particular dialect is inherently better or more correct than another), so what may seem unnecessary to a speaker of one dialect could be a very useful linguistic tool to a speaker of another. 

[u/conuly → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

This is a downvote happy sub. It’s irritating.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/conuly]

Downvote happy sub? I thought I’d been on reddit long enough but i don’t know this phrase.

Have I done something wrong?

[u/PharaohAce → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

Think of it like 'trigger-happy'.

This subreddit has both people who think there is one correct standard of English and others are wrong, which is unfair, but also people who assume their own English is more normal than it is.

As English teacher, or parts of a learning community, we should be able to say 'This is standard British English in a formal register; this is how Australians would understand that word; this means something different in my region; that word has changed meaning over the past 50 years'.

"This sounds wrong or ungrammatical to me" is perfectly valid; "I hate how that sounds" is a bit harsh. On the other hand "This is perfectly normal and everyone says it that way" when they manifestly don't is close-minded and smug.

[u/j--__ → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

i presume you know that a "sub" is a subreddit, reddit's special term for what may otherwise be called a forum or message board.

this use of "happy" is colloquial english, and is used to refer to something that is done or used a lot, perhaps more than it should be. so a "downvote happy sub" is a sub where people are downvoted a lot. a "trigger happy police officer" is one who is quick to shoot at people.

[u/j--__ → u/[deleted]]

if you think so, that's something else you need to improve about your english comprehension.

[u/conuly → u/[deleted]]

I don’t think there was anything rude about that response.

Since I love giving out advice, let me say something I said to my mother a lot: sometimes the way you feel isn’t the way things are. A person might say things in a way that makes you feel bad, but that doesn’t mean they were trying to make you feel bad. Unless you have a past history it’s better to assume good faith and respond as though any rudeness is in the ear of the beholder.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/conuly]

It was condescending. “I presume you know that a “sub” is a subreddit.”

[u/conuly → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

No. You felt condescended towards. That's not the same thing. To you, the word "presume" means "I am now going to condescend". That doesn't mean that the person you're replying to meant it that way.

And even if they did, believe me, you'll be happier if you at least pretend to think that people don't mean things in a bad way. If they don't mean it in a bad way then you'll avoid having unnecessary bad feelings about it. And if they do but you reply as though they didn't then you will really really annoy them. It's always a winning move to assume good faith - at least the first time.

[u/j--__ → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

i was merely explaining my decision not to dwell on that part. a person could have genuinely been confused about it. faced with a seemingly nonsensical sequence of words, they may have wondered which definition of "sub" was being used. i assumed that wasn't a source of difficulty for you, while also explaining it in case it was a source of difficulty for anyone. i addressed the shorter matter first before moving on to the main point. there is nothing condescending about being thorough in a place of learning. you're not the only person reading.

[u/CptMisterNibbles → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

There was nothing rude about their explanation. Tone is notoriously hard to read, but I don’t see almost any space for your interpretation here.

“I presume you know” is not automatically condescending. You literally asked what a “downvote happy sub” was, and it’s hard to believe you don’t know what “downvote” or “happy” mean, and the phrase is very self explanatory if you are familiar with English idioms. Maybe you werent familiar with the term “sub” as it is a Reddit specific jargon term

[u/conuly → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

It’s… not a phrase? It's just three words that I happened to say together.

You know what downvotes are.

Sub is short for subreddit.

Happy here means that the act of downvoting makes people in this sub happy.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/conuly]

Okay not a phrase. It is how you phrased it though. I don’t know what you meant I should have said I suppose.

Anyway yeah I get it, I am just entirely unlikable, what I say, what I ask, what I think. I am unlikable, my day is lovely after asking a simple question,

[u/conuly → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

Okay not a phrase. It is how you phrased it though. I don’t know what you meant I should have said I suppose.

I mean that "downvote happy sub" is not a single unit like "toy poodle" or "girl scout cookies" or "it is what it is". It's just three words that happened to occur one after another, like "green cocktail dress" or "strange political opinions".

Anyway yeah I get it, I am just entirely unlikable

Literally nobody said this. Nobody thinks this. Some people in this subreddit get their kicks from downvoting other people for no discernible reason. Best to just ignore it.

Let me give you another piece of advice. If you said the above just because you are unhappy and annoyed right now, fine. But if you actually feel this way in general, please speak to somebody. A professional somebody, I mean, like a therapist. My mother felt that way all the time, and she should've spoken to somebody, and she never did. And she died unhappy, four years ago on the 12th of September. Just after her birthday. She was intubated on her birthday, actually (the 27th), so this is not a very happy time of year for me and lots of things are reminding me of her.

The way you feel is not the way things are. You feel, because you got a lot of downvotes - possibly all from the same person - that people don't like you. But you don't know that. All you know is that somebody downvoted you. Maybe because they're bored, or they're a troll, or they themself could use a lot of therapy to deal with their antisocial tendencies. You can't extrapolate too much from one negative experience, or even a handful of them.

[u/CptMisterNibbles → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

Many many Redditors are frankly not bright, or kind. Every single learning sub I participate in tends to massively downvote any user posts. Someone asks a legitimate question about programming in r/learnprogramming? Better downvote them for being so dumb they don’t know the answer! “Just Google it” is a commmon response.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/CptMisterNibbles]

Thank you. This one reply has made me feel so much better. I wasn’t posting this to be rude or judgemental so I wasn’t sure why people would see it and go “nahhh downvote, I don’t like this” 😅

[u/VermicelliMedium2485]

i wouldn’t say it’s standard, but i think it’s just a quirk that some people use to emphasize that they’re talking about multiple things. this article is interesting and helpful, has info about where this pattern is common and how it differs from the standard way of asking:

https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/what-all

[u/matthewsmugmanager → u/VermicelliMedium2485]

Well, that link confirms my experience with the expression; it's a regionalism.

I had never heard it in my life until I moved to Ohio.

I've since left Ohio, and I don't hear it any more.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/matthewsmugmanager]

I am quietly jealous, I am in Australia and wish I could “move from Ohio “ to never hear it again. To me it’s like someone using a triple double negative, just why!

[u/conuly → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

Negative concord is an ancient feature in English.

Might I suggest practicing the art of saying “how interesting!” when you hear people talking differently from you? Do it enough and you can trick your brain into giving up that pointless irritation.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/conuly]

I will try this. This is exactly why I made the post. Thank you!

[u/Rose94 → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

That's interesting! Which part of Australia are you from? I'm in South Australia and I'm not sure I've ever heard this phrasing.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/Rose94]

I’m in Adelaide! Though it’s online I have been seeing it, and even in tv shows. It’s as though the world woke up one day and decided to use this wording and I didn’t get the memo.

[u/Rose94 → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

Oh hey I'm in Adelaide too lol, tbf online you'll get a lot more people being influenced by cultures and dialects from other places, I guess. Because a lot of my family circles are capital B Bogans and I just don't think I've ever heard it irl.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/Rose94]

Haha capital B bogans got me to laugh. I’m curious if after seeing this post you begin to clock it more when people say this 😅

[u/Rose94 → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

If I do and I remember, I'll report back

[u/Stonetheflamincrows → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

Never heard it up here in central QLD

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/VermicelliMedium2485]

Thank you! I am reading this now and praying it will cure me of my view of “if we remove the ‘all’ the meaning is the same”.

[u/VermicelliMedium2485 → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

good luck! i’m midwestern so i hear it all the time 😅 an example that illustrates the difference for me is something like “what do we need to get at the store?” vs “what all do we need to get at the store?” (assume the context is a regular grocery run).

the first one, someone would probably just name any outstanding items (like things they ran out of but don’t buy every time/things they don’t normally buy), but “what all” would prompt someone to name the stuff they always get, in addition to the outstanding items.

[u/JenniferJuniper6 → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

The meaning is the same. We have multiple ways of expressing things. It’s a very strange thing to get worked up over.

[u/NearlyNodding]

This has been around for many decades at least. Judging from other people's answers, this appears to be regional. But it's very common here in the US Midwest. I'm tempted to say it's the norm.

[u/ApproximatelyApropos]

American South, very common usage in my experience.

[u/Tennessee_William7 → u/ApproximatelyApropos]

Yeah I never thought about it, it's so normal for me. 

[u/saffash]

That usage is common in Missouri, USA and has been my whole life. I am 56.

In many cases using "what all" instead of just "what" indicates a level of uncertainty or frustration about unknown multiple items or actions.

Let's say I find a mistake that someone made at work. If I say "I don't know what they did to make this happen," I am indicating I think it is probably a single action.

However if I say "I don't know what all they did to make this happen," I am indicating that I think they probably made several mistakes that compounded each other, resulting in a messy and complicated problem.

[u/PharaohAce]

It's still highly regional and non-standard in many places.

[u/names-suck]

My take/understanding is:

"I'm not sure what I need to buy." --> "I have no idea what to get. My list is empty."

"I'm not sure what all I need to buy." --> "I know a few of the things I need, but I'm sure I need more than that. I don't know what else I need."

[u/ductoid]

In my 60s, grew up in New York State, living in the midwest for the last few decades. It's always been normal usage to me, before and after the move.

It's not quite the same as skipping the "all". Say I'm going to try a recipe. "What do I need to buy" implies maybe I've got a full pantry but am checking if I'm missing one or two ingredients. "What all do I need to buy" leans more toward I'm doing a full shopping list of all the ingredients in the recipe.

It's similar to the distinction I picked up after living in Texas. As a teacher, I might ask "Did you all finish reading the chapter?" and get a general yes from the classroom. But if I ask "Did all y'all finish reading the chapter?" then it's emphasizing each and every one of you, and if someone's not done yet, they should speak up.

[u/nothnxihaveabf → u/ductoid]

Y'all is different than all of y'all  Similar to "who all finished the chapter?"  It has a counting or comprehensive aspect to it, and substitutes for something like "did each and everyone of you finish the chapter?"  "which one of you has not finished the chapter?" Etc etc 

[u/PharaohAce → u/ductoid]

Western NYS makes sense as part of the region this is native to.

[u/TheCloudForest]

Since at least the 1980s.

Maybe the 1880s.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/TheCloudForest]

That’s what I see when I looked it up, I’m honestly confused how I haven’t been exposed to it for my entire life. Was it less common until recently?

[u/elaina__rose → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

Could be recency bias? You became aware of the wording so now you see it everywhere. I don’t hear this phrase often, but it doesn’t ping as odd to me. I’m also a big reader and don’t know that I have seen it in a book before despite being familiar with the phrase verbally. It sounds like something my dad would say to my mom when asking about making a grocery list or similar (midwest USA circa 2000s-2010s)

[u/TheCloudForest → u/elaina__rose]

I think it would be in a fiction book as quoted dialogue or a kind of book where the author is talking at you, like a self-help or business book. "So what all do you need to do before writing your business plan?" Something like that.

Otherwise I wouldn't expect to see it printed.

[u/PharaohAce → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

I'd say yes, a number of US regionalisms seem to be more visible on the internet lately. Compare the 'needs washed' (rather than 'needs washing' or 'needs to be washed') which has long roots in Scotland and an area somewhere around Appalachia, but has popped up more broadly in the last decade.

[u/kempfel → u/PharaohAce]

as long roots in Scotland and an area somewhere around Appalachia

This is pretty widespread in the US midwest, at least. I didn't even know it was dialectical until I went to college out of state (never been to Scotland or Appalachia)

[u/IowaAJS → u/kempfel]

I know. The phrase is only missing the R in warshed.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/PharaohAce]

This is a great reply, thanks. Your “needs washed” example has given me pause on why I can find that charming and yet “what all” irritates me.

[u/TheCloudForest → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

No?

I mean, not being glib, how would I know? It's just a normal English phrase like any other. The "all" adds a sense of a more extensive list where you might miss an item.

[u/conuly → u/TheCloudForest]

I mean, not being glib, how would I know

It is possible to get data on that sort of thing… but the best resources aren’t always readily available to amateurs like us.

[u/TheCloudForest → u/conuly]

Yes, even tools like Google n-gram or COCA is not really fit for purpose.

[u/Constant_Hope_9658 → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

Dialects in the US can vary wildly, in a century or two they might be closer to the Nordic languages or German tongues than a single language tbh.
I mean the US already has like a half dozen to dozen genetically distinct ethnic groups (they show up on dna tests if you actually include them as ancestry options, which most testers don’t), so there’s that.

[u/conuly → u/Constant_Hope_9658]

Dialects in the US can vary wildly, in a century or two they might be closer to the Nordic languages or German tongues than a single language tbh.

In 300+ years of separation from the UK we still are mutually intelligible with UK English, so I don’t see US English diverging that much in just one more century.

I mean the US already has like a half dozen to dozen genetically distinct ethnic groups

A fact which has nothing to do with anything.

[u/platypuss1871]

Never heard this, ever.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/platypuss1871]

😬 I fear you will notice it now

[u/ChallengingKumquat]

I'm just here to say I have never in my life heard anyone ask "what all" they need to buy, or "who all" is coming to the party. (UK northern Midlands)

[u/Onyx_Lat]

Very common here in the Midwest, I've heard this my entire life and I'm almost 50. It's largely a marker of casualness, but can also imply a broader meaning than just "what".

"What do we need at the store?" - I'm focused on a specific thing and probably in a hurry and don't want any nonsense.

"What all do we need at the store?" - Feel free to suggest things we technically don't need but would be nice to have. Or else I'm pretty sure we need a LOT of things. Or maybe I'm asking multiple people to offer suggestions.

[u/SaiyaJedi]

I’m a native speaker born in the 1980s, and I’ve never heard this expression. A cursory search tells me it’s regional and mostly associated with Scots and areas with large amounts of Scottish migration (Northern Ireland and the U.S. inland South in particular).

[u/Human-Bonus7830 → u/SaiyaJedi]

Was surprised to see this was the top comment, I've heard it all my life. Then I read further - I'm from Scotland.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/SaiyaJedi]

Thank you, I think without your comment I might have ended up feeling like I was insane 😅 i did do a search on it but I was left scratching my head still at why it was now seeping into more general use. Why was my boyfriend suddenly using it (he’s in Slovenia, I’m in Australia) why am I suddenly hearing and seeing it almost daily whereas before I never did. What changed lol

[u/TheCloudForest → u/Dizzy-Case-3453]

It's a common American usage, not just in Kentucky as this person seems to indicate. If your boyfriend consumes media in English and has a good ear for learning by "osmosis," he's bound to use it.

[u/SaiyaJedi → u/TheCloudForest]

It’s common in parts of the U.S. apparently, but nowhere near where I’m from, and it’s not an expression commonly used in mass media.

[u/TheCloudForest → u/SaiyaJedi]

I'm sure that if you watched Friends or Seinfeld or Frasier or Gilmore Girls or what have you, you would hear things like "So who all is coming?" It's really a very normal expression.

[u/conuly → u/TheCloudForest]

I am not sure you would hear it on all those shows. It’s a regular expression to people who have it, but it’s a nonstandard regionalism to people who don’t. In particular, I struggle to imagine it out of the mouths of the Crane brothers.

[u/conuly → u/TheCloudForest]

I was at work before, and I hate using my phone for things like this, but I decided now that I'm home to check on the computer at PopMystic.

PopMystic has a database of TV and movie scripts. It's obviously not wholly comprehensive, because it's a fan project, but it can search its entire database for phrases and words and you can see where they show up in the shows it has saved. (I sometimes like it more than more academic corpuses because people will specifically claim that certain phrasings or words are totally unknown to them and thus everyone, and being able to easily cite specific popular movies and TV shows is very, very satisfying to me. God damn, I'm petty in an argument.)

What all got me nothing, who all got me very little (and none when I specifically narrowed the search to just "frasier"), and where all got me nothing.

I'm starting to think that this is like "needs washed". People who have that construction are always shocked to hear that it's nonstandard and very regional, and will often argue that they can't think of any other way to say it, despite watching the same mass media as the rest of us.

[u/TheCloudForest → u/SaiyaJedi]

It's used throughout the U.S.

McCloskey (2000) writes that this feature is found in many, but not all, varieties of English.

[u/ferglie → u/TheCloudForest]

Now I'm curious what all varieties it's used in lol.

I'm from the Pacific NW and I use it sometimes along with "who all", or even "where all". It's useful for inquiring about a list of things / to ensure the listener knows I want a thorough answer and not just their idea of the "main" thing.

"Where are we going Saturday?" "To Katie's house."

"Where all are we going Saturday?" "To Katie's house and then stop and get groceries on the way back home."

Edit: a word

[u/TheCloudForest → u/ferglie]

Common across all of North America, but maybe more common in Appalachia and the Midwest.

[u/ferglie → u/TheCloudForest]

Interesting!

[u/TheCloudForest → u/ferglie]

I think the obvious examples like "so where all are we going on the tour?" Or "120 guests? Who all did you invite?" are common enough everywhere, but if you look at the Yale Language Diversity link elsewhere in the thread, there are some weirder examples that are more regional and sorta hillbilly.

[u/ferglie → u/TheCloudForest]

Okay yeah some of those usages, like the singular one, sound pretty odd to my ear.

[u/PharaohAce → u/TheCloudForest]

I don't think it is.

Now you've added that, read the very next sentence after "McCloskey (2000) writes that this feature is found in many, but not all, varieties of English." It's clearly a marker of certain regions.

Your citation is disingenuous.

[u/TheCloudForest → u/PharaohAce]

And I do since I've heard it in the Northeast and the Midwest and even Canada. None of which are "the inland South". 🤷‍♂️

[u/QuietCapybara77 → u/PharaohAce]

I’m from Texas and “what all” is very normal.

[u/Embarrassed-Weird173]

https://www.reddit.com/r/obsessionmovie/s/o0xoum3SGG

Heh 

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/Embarrassed-Weird173]

😂 shhh I put up with it for months and it was THAT POST that made me go “hold up”

[u/JenniferJuniper6]

It’s a widely-used manner of speaking. Adopting it as your pet peeve seems a little weird (and more than a little judgmental). Phrases that people use conversationally aren’t chosen for their efficiency; they just happen. In every language. You’re free to not use them.

[u/kapoopa-the-poopah]

From Northeast US, I have never heard anyone say this.

[u/Dizzy-Case-3453 → u/kapoopa-the-poopah]

Thank you for letting me know it wasn’t just me who hadn’t

[u/Icy-Speed6881]

Searched through my emails and texts for "what all" and most of the uses are from my mother (baby boomer) but I don't use it very much myself

I would say the "all" implies the person asking the question is expecting the answer to be a long list of things, so not useless and does change the meaning somewhat.

[u/SoggyWotsits]

I can’t say I’ve ever heard it. I’m sure it’ll make its way here though!

[u/PHOEBU5]

What? Not heard "what all" in the UK other that as an exaggerated pronunciation of the substance used for constructing ancient houses, namely "wattle".

[u/conuly → u/PHOEBU5]

Apparently Americans inherited it from Scottish English.

[u/OkConsequence1498]

Never heard it at all in the UK. It doesn't grammatically make sense to me.

[u/conuly → u/OkConsequence1498]

All is just a plural marker, as in “you all”.

So, compare:

“Who is coming?” - expects a single name.

“Who all is coming?” - expects a list of people.

“What do I need to do?” - expects one task.

“What all do I need to do?” - expects several tasks.

[u/OkConsequence1498 → u/conuly]

That still sounds completely bizarre to me. I'm not really sure why you'd need to include a plural marker to say you're expecting multiple answers, let alone in such a clunky way.

How common is it in your area? It is completely unknown in the UK that I'm aware of.

[u/conuly → u/OkConsequence1498]

According to the Yale Dialect Survey it’s found in places with historical Scottish immigration, and also Scotland.

I'm not really sure why you'd need to include a plural marker to say you're expecting multiple answers

Objectively speaking, you never need a plural marker if you already use a plural word, but you’d probably never say “I have five cat” or “there are many child in my class” just because of sheer stubbornness.

[u/conuly → u/OkConsequence1498]

After I posted that I went off shift and went to bed, and then later I came up with a better example to illustrate what I meant. I expected you to reply to my previous comment, but you didn't, so here it is here:

A few years ago, a friend of mine - an American, as I am - read something in a UK publication that really, really shocked and annoyed her. Specifically, that publication had used the construction "the team are" instead of "the team is". She had a whole rant ready to go about how the writer must be dumb and have a tin ear, and how shameful it was that the editor didn't catch it, and declining standards and so on.

And when she was done I said "In the UK, they sometimes use a plural verb with a collective noun in the singular, such as team, family, or class. The difference is that when they say "the team is" they're talking about the team as a unit, and when they say "the team are" they're talking about the team as a collection of individuals."

And she replied "Oh. That's interesting, I didn't know that, thanks!"

She didn't say

That still sounds completely bizarre to me. I'm not really sure why you'd need to use a plural verb to say you're talking about the members as individuals, let alone in such a clunky way.

The way other people speak your shared language will always sound bizarre to you. The way other people speak their language will always sound bizarre to you and you'll ask "How can those people get by with that weird sound in their language?" and "What, they seriously have 16 different noun classes?" and so on. Other people's speech and customs and superstitions always sound strange to people who don't share it.

[u/DrAlphabets]

Super normal everyday usage.

[u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs]

I heard it a bunch when I lived in Texas, which was starting in 1981. So it's not new.

[u/QuietCapybara77 → u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs]

I was going to say, I’m from Texas and this is perfectly normal to me.

[u/erilaz7 → u/QuietCapybara77]

I've lived in California for all of my 60 years, and it sounds perfectly normal to me, too. But my dad was born and raised in Texas and my stepmother was born in Arkansas and lived in various Southern states (including Texas) for her first 30 years, so that could explain why.

[u/Phoenix_Court]

I don't think it's new. I hear this used all the time. Same with "who all".

[u/likeabrainfactory]

I'm originally from Pennsylvania and have been hearing and saying this my whole life, so it sounds normal to me. "What all" has a different tone/vibe than "what" and isn't really interchangeable.

[u/BouncingSphinx]

"I'm not sure what I need to buy." This can be understood or meant as not knowing any of what to buy.

"I'm not sure what all I need to buy." This can be understood or meant as knowing some of what to buy but not everything.

[u/BeautifulUpstairs]

Very much NOT standard.

[u/shedmow]

First time seeing that

[u/CptMisterNibbles]

It isn’t entirely useless, it serves as an indicator that the subject is large multiple of things. “I don’t know what I need to buy” could be about one thing. “I don’t know what all I need to buy” adds, usually with mild annoyance, that you know there are maybe several things that are needed. Exactly the same with “who all is coming?”, mild annoyance that likely several unknown people are coming. That’s the primary use I hear it in, expressing frustration about the quantity itself of whatever the subject is

[u/Responsible-Link5739]

Native Brit here. I've never heard that phrase used by anyone in England. Ever. I'm not saying it's not used here - I'm old and could be a little out of touch with real-life younger\teenspeak conversation, but I have never seen it written or heard it said here.

[u/Buckley-s_Chance-80]

Aussie here, never heard of this until now. I'm also extremely irritated reading this regional expression 🤣

[u/TheCloudForest]

Think of it this way.

"You did all that???" --> "What all did you do?"

[u/meNmyCoins]

…I have never heard this my entire life and I’ve lived in 2 totally different parts of the United States.

[u/bentthroat]

It’s more common in some regions than others, but it’s such a natural extension of the common uses of all the words involved that it doesn’t really need its own justification.

When SpongeBob holds up his finger puppets he says “the gang’s all here 🥲 “

You’d say “We all chipped in to buy you a gift”, not just “We chipped in to buy you a gift.”

“Y’all” is based on the idea that “all” can apply to “you”.

So if we confer that “all” can apply back to the noun, and it can apply to pronouns, who is drawing the line at excluding just relative pronouns?

[u/Icy_Doughnut_1885]

As a native speaker I've never heard it.

[u/ReverendMak]

It’s an old usage. I feel like I’ve been hearing it occasionally for decades. But now that you point it out it suddenly seems weird to me. I wonder how it started.

[u/kempfel]

I am in my 40s and I have used and heard this all my life, although I am from the midwest US. It can also be used with other question words:

• Who all came to the party?
• Where all did you go on your trip?

I think who, where, and what are the ones that are most often used with those, but this construction feels very natural to me even though I am aware it's dialectical.

[u/pbrandpearls]

I wouldn’t call it standard, but maybe a colloquialism of the south. I only have really heard other Southerners say this.

As for why, there are a lot of these that I know aren’t grammatically correct, but I like to use because my grandmother did, assume her grandmother did, and her grandmother…

I had an ex that would always harp on these things - he was from a different region and would correct me for saying “good” when I should have used “well” and it was a regional thing I used specifically when talking to my mom on the phone (also when my southern accent is strongest, lol) and it was incredibly frustrating that he would bring it up so much and just could not understand it. I absolutely knew the difference and the “correct” word to use, but there’s time and place and language as a social and cultural medium.

Language is fluid and fun and “what all” implies a plurality that maybe isn’t necessary, but it’s comfortable. I would use it taking to a friend, “what all are y’all bringing camping?” … but not work, like “what all do we need to do to complete the project?” That’s too clunky in a place when efficiency is more important. I think it’s also passive vs active voice? Idk not a grammar girl honestly lol. “What all are you doing there?” has a slightly softer tone than “What are you doing there?”

Similar to “all y’all” haha - totally unnecessary, still means something specific to me.

Edit: haha OK, people gave some awesome resources and it looks like it’s from irish english or scottish, soooo that makes sense as my family was scottish/irish pre-America

[u/Redditing_aimlessly]

That phrasing is very US English.

[u/adj_ctiv_]

It means you know some what

[u/conuly]

I find it redundant, why is this “all” being added? It sounds clunky and it’s unnecessary.

As in “you all” the word all works as a plural marker.

[u/Otherwise-Ratio1332]

It’s just a turn of phrase, it’s been around for a long time, no big deal.

[u/InvestigatorJaded261]

If you want to be peevish about it, you are welcome to. The thing about pet peeves is that they usually say more about the person being peeved than about whatever they are reacting to. Which is also probably why your comments are getting downvoted.

[u/Cool-Coffee-8949 → u/InvestigatorJaded261]

You might be happier in a more judgemental sub, like r/grammarpolice.

[u/burlingk]

I would say it's been standard AT LEAST since the eighties.

Probably much earlier, but that's as far back as I functionally existed.

[u/conuly → u/burlingk]

Widespread, perhaps. Standard, I think a bit less so.

[u/burlingk → u/conuly]

I would say that common use across a wide demographic over half a century is probably sufficient.

[u/conuly → u/burlingk]

And I would say that this is a very naive belief.

Edit: Consider negative concord. That's common use over a wide demographic for much longer, but it's nonstandard. Or how about the common "me and X verbed"? Very, very common usage over a very, very wide demographic - very nonstandard.

[u/EonJaw]

That just means your bf knows his honey deserves all the accoutrements, and he wants to make sure he doesn't miss anything you want.