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"I have four dogs. All of them are white."

How should I translate "all of them"? Google Translate suggests simply tous.

(a) J'ai quatre chiens. Tous sont blancs.

Can I specify that it's all of them?

(b) J'ai quatre chiens. Tous d'entre eux sont blancs.

A sentence that means basically the same is the following: "I have four dogs, all of which are white." Can I translate like this?

(c) J'ai quatre chiens, dont tous sont blancs.

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  • Tous sont blancs or chacun d'entre eux est blanc are the only ways I see.
    – Destal
    Dec 13, 2016 at 7:29

1 Answer 1

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You could drop "of them" in French but we usually repeat what is being talked about,though as a subject and not as an object.

J'ai quatre chiens. Ils sont tous blancs.

J'ai trois paires de chaussures. Elles sont toutes noires.

Dont cannot be used with tous as you do in (c). It would only work to point to a lesser number.

J'ai quatre chiens, dont deux sont blancs.

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  • I confirm. You can never say "tous d'entre eux" or "dont tous sont...". If you're using one of those you're talking about a fraction of them. Dec 13, 2016 at 8:50
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    And if you want to do it in one sentence you can also say "J'ai quatre chiens, qui sont tous blancs" Dec 13, 2016 at 8:51

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