What is the grammatical explanation of the phrase “all that” as in the sentence “I didn’t understand all that much”?
- I didn’t understand all that much.
I came across the sentence above, and now wonder if someone could explain the grammar about the phrase “all that”.
For example:
- All that glitters is not gold.
In this case, ‘all’ seems a pronoun; ‘that’, a relative pronoun. But ‘that’ in the sentence (1) does not introduce a relative clause. Therefore, the usage may be different.
I do not have any other clues to find out the grammatical explanation.
After discussing with John, I think it is a good idea to add another sentence for further understanding.
- I didn't understand all that.
This sentence is very similar to (1), but it could be structurally different from (1).
I hope this comparison help us understand these usage more precisely.
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