What are some examples of and reasons why you think the word “who all is” is wrong?
I often tend to say something like
Who all are coming to the movies? I usually have one, don’t have many and I’m just being loud and shrill.
Who are going to the movies? They all come to
the movies, can you tell me?
Which one is correct?
Why are some people having doubts about the validity of their statements?
Both are incorrect.
“Who is coming to the movies?” or “Who wants to come to the movies?” are more appropriate.
What are some best case alternatives to using a different language in a book about the problem?
In American dialects that use a variant of “who all” is actually a pronoun in its own right. It is sometimes written “who-all.” The region where it’s used overlaps, but isn’t exactly contiguous with, the region(s) where “you” (or “you”) is common.
In usage, just as “you all” can be treated as a substitute for “you”, “who all” takes the place of ‘who’ – so I think you’ll find that most American speakers (who would use this construction) would ask “Who all is coming to movies?
What are some practical advices you can give to someone who has a disability?
What is some of the sound responses in MT_Head’s answer as an American English student?
One question: Does the Indian English “who all” form a pronoun? In the language, Indian English has no lexical item besides “you all” (though the sequence “you all” obviously still exists in contexts like “Are you all going to go to the movies?” ). At minimum, there is no analogy to “you all”, since that isn’t a lexical item in any range of Indian English I’ve heard (though the sequence “you all” clearly still exists in contexts like “Are you all going to go to the movies? “Who all are going to the movies?”; I don’t have the linguistic vocabulary to accurately describe what’s going on in “who all are going to the movies” but the “all” is the sort of a “modifier” here. “who all” doesn’t strike me as a discrete lexical item.
If you are unfamiliar with Indian English may be surprised to learn that “all” can also modify other interrogatives, which is something that I don’t believe is a feature of southern US English. What are
some of the things you have eaten for dinner? Where did
you spend your first vacation in your life? Why all are you,
a bit of dictionary searching for constructions (in Indian English) does reveal a fair bit of other interrogatives and uses the word “all” as a modifier. I’m not sure whether I’ve personally heard “when all”, “how all”, or “why all”, but a quick bit of
google searching for constructions like “why all are you” does reveal a fair bit of English that uses these other interrogatives with “all” as a modifier.
Yes the usage of ‘who all’ and ‘you all’ seem to be less of a direct translation of one’s vernacular into English as far as Indian English is concerned. I state so as far as from what I have read so far I have never come across such a usage by any good authors. Why isn’t it in formal English to be written more than this?
In regional Amerikan English, I think that interpreting “who all” as if it were dominated by the word all instead of by the word who misunderstands how the word is used. I was asked by
the following person who is going into my car?
I am not aware that most US English speakers would use over him as the verb to use. (The English word for over but the English word for over are would probably be over), is over an over are, is over are, is over for are etc., etc., etc.). The presence of all in the formulation might seem to alter the logic of the question, but it doesn’t. If I
was to drive like this and I had to leave with other people, Who are gone with me?
Who essentially amounts to
asking who… if any among the potential riders may be going with me in my car?”
The answer is probably ‘Who is doing X’. Other than the all an all? What
about kids at a birthday party who want ice cream?
Who wants ice cream?
At a birthday party, only one child who requested ice cream would express the desire. Is it realistic? What is one sentence in a question which wants to be, “Who all wants…”? I grew up
in a part of the U.S. (southeast Texas) where “who all is!” was very common in informal speech but where “who is…” was essentially the only accepted form in writing and in formal speech, both wordings sound entirely natural to me.
Indeed, in that part of the country a construction of the form “…are coming to the movies?” would sound right only if it began, not with “Who” but with “Which”:
Which of you are coming to the movies?
Which one
you want ice cream?
I suppose that the shift in this case happens because “Which of you…” wording implies “Which ones of you…” although “Which of you is…” is also a common form when the intended sense is the singular “Which one of you is…” As far as I know there
is no idiomatic “who all” wording corresponding to “who all.” ”
“This is really a great movie and one of one of the main reasons it is important to do it. This is your story. A wonderful story.”
I just used the contracted form of “who all is”—”who all’s”—in a message. Is it true that we are getting late? No one misunderstands that question in Tennessee. Is the dictionary single?
All y’all is plural.
Say it and smile.