Spanish: An Essential Grammar

desde el punto de vista de todos

from everyone’s point of view

En cuanto a sus primos, los conozco a todos.

As for his cousins, I know all of them.

Eso se lo dice a todas.

That’s what he says to all women.

Note: The phrase todo el mundo is equivalent to (and more common than) the

pronoun todosin the sense of ‘everyone’.

Todoas invariable neuter pronoun

Todoas an invariable neuter pronoun corresponds to ‘all’, ‘everything’.

When used as the direct object of a verb the object pronoun lois normally

used, as in English ‘it all’:

Me gustaría un poco de todo. I would like a bit of everything.

Lo he comprado todo. I’ve bought everything/it all.

Todo as an adverb

As an invariable adverb todoappears between the verb serand a noun. In

this use, it corresponds to English ‘all’, ‘entirely’, ‘nothing but’:

Esta carne es todo grasa. This meat is all fat.

Su pelo era todo rizos. Her hair was all curly.

Era todo sonrisas. She was all smiles.

Cualquiera

Cualquieratranslates English ‘any’, except in negative sentences (in which

ningunoshould be used, see 24.2.4) and in some questions (where alguno

may be more appropriate).

It is invariable for gender. The plural form is only used in cases like cau-

lesquiera que sean sus motivos‘whatever his motives are’.

As an indefinite adjective it is commoner beforenouns, and in this use it is

alwaysshortened to cualquier. When used as a pronoun cualquierais never

shortened:

9.10

9.9.3

9.9.2.2

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

9

Indefinite
adjectives,
pronouns and
adverbs

92