Tom burned the cornbread and must do it all over again. …OR… Tom burned the cornbread and must do it over again.
Is it a regionalism that we use “All”? I typically say or write “all over again”. Are both phrases correct in standard Grammar? Is their a syntax where the All is needed?
Jack’s homework was incomplete. The teacher insisted he do it over again. …OR… Jack’s homework was incomplete. The teacher insisted he do it all over again.
For some reason, this example sounds better without All.
I think it’s the context. You have to totally remake cornbread batter and bake again. While incomplete homework can be partially salvaged. It’s not “all over” like cornbread.
I think it would originally be a matter of either extent or emphasis, but it’s sliding out of its original meaning:
I had to redo everything = I had to do it all over again -> the “all” is actually a modifier of “it”, “it all” means “everything”
I had to redo a part but it was such a total bother -> this would be the case where saying “I had to do it all over again” is emphatic exaggeration
But then you have people for whom hyperbole are a way of life, and who would say they had to do it all over again even if they’re talking about cutting a sheet of paper in half, and what had originally been actual extent or emphasis is just the way they speak.
If you think about it, neither “all” nor “over” are needed - “he had to do it again” fully captures the sense of what you are saying.
“Over” or “all over” are intensifiers, underlining the magnitude of what had to be done again, or the inconvenience of doing it again. Which you prefer is a matter of idiom. “He had to do it over again” sounds distinctly American to me. (I’m Irish.)
I disagree with Nava that “all” qualifies “it”, if only because “all over again” sounds perfectly fine to me when used with an intransitive verb (“He had to start all over again”). I see it as modifiying “over” (in the same way that it does in “he spilt ink all over the page”).
I agree with UDS: this is a matter of idiom, not grammar. Neither “all” nor “over” are necessary (and, to my ear, the second example, in particular, would be better without either), and the use of the “over” without the “all” is an American idiom that sounds just a little off to a British ear like mine. Perhaps the reverse is the case in America, but, even there, I think you would want to use the “all” if you wanted to hint at the bothersomeness of the situation.
However, I think there is another problem with the first example. The “it” appears to refer to the burning of the cornbread (or, possibly, the cornbread itself), but what Tom must do again is make the cornbread. I also think it needs a comma. Thus, the sentence really should be “Tom burned the cornbread, and must make it [all] [over] again”. ( indicates an optional word.)
Thanks. I’m going to try and resist using “All over” unless the emphasis is really needed.
If your computer crashes and you lost 45 minutes of Word editing. That’s worthy of “all over again”. Fixing a pillow because the dog knocked it off the sofa you just straightened up isn’t. Bob straightened the sofa’s cushions again. Is all that’s needed.
The problem I have with just using again is that it often doesn’t carry the connotation. “Do again” doesn’t have the same feeling of repetitiveness nor the level of annoyance/exasperation. I can go to the toilet again. I cannot go to the toilet (all) over again.