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  1. All, but her, had made an attempt.
  2. All, but she, had made an attempt.

If all is the subject of the sentence, should I use a subject or object in the parenthesis statement? Why?

Is this correct way to punctuate my statement?

According to the website, IndiaBix, the correct answer is All, but she,

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I have searched for an answer in these two questions, but they did not help me.

Is "all but one" singular or plural?
"All but" idiom has two meanings?

Community
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Abdul Kaium Tanvir
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  • On EL&U I think *all* your questions could have been pretty good, but for the lack of effort and research. And after being here a while, you get penalised for that. But thanks to tchrist ♦ your question has been reopened. Please, next time, explain your confusion and do a bit of Googling before asking a new question. – Mari-Lou A Feb 26 '17 at 15:26
  • @Lawrence: In OP's context here, *but = except*, so I think the Case after 'except'? dup I linked to in my closevote is more specific. – FumbleFingers Feb 26 '17 at 15:44
  • @FumbleFingers Agreed. I can retract my close-vote but can't change it to point to yours, so I'll just leave this comment to point any future reviewers to the duplicate you found. – Lawrence Feb 26 '17 at 15:47
  • @FumbleFingers hmmm, I found the following title, 1968, Whence all but he had fled, which seems to be inspired by a line from the poem Casabianca – Mari-Lou A Feb 26 '17 at 16:17
  • @Mari-Lou A: Back when I was a kid we used to trot that one out with different (usually, smutty) variations on the next three lines in each verse. As best I can recall though, we got round the "questionable" grammar and dated diction of the second line in the first verse by switching to When all around* had fled. You might find this link interesting. But I can't really explain why he/she* seems to work in some contexts like that, given that Everyone except I* went home* is so obviously "unacceptable". – FumbleFingers Feb 26 '17 at 16:41
  • @FumbleFingers I see etymologynerd deleted their answer. Could have at least looked at my comment underneath the OP's question. That is, I believe the only valid example, there's also a Shakespearian line from Midsummer's Night dream containing the citation But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so. He will not know what all but he* do know., which thrilled me for one or two minutes... – Mari-Lou A Feb 26 '17 at 20:36
  • Basically they both stink. And the commas don't belong there. "Everyone but her had made an attempt" is far more idiomatic. In this case "but" is a preposition, so it takes the object form of the pronoun. The commas greatly confuse things, as they make it unclear whether "but" is a preposition or a conjunction. – Hot Licks Feb 26 '17 at 23:14

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