why not TOUS ?

Bonjour Diana,

Good question!

In 'pose tout sur la table', tout is not an adjective agreeing with objects. It's a neuter pronoun meaning 'everything' — and in French, 'everything' is always grammatically singular and masculine, so it never becomes tous.

Think of tout here like the English word "everything" — you would never say "put everythings on the table" just because there are multiple items. The word itself already conveys the idea of plurality, but it's treated as a single collective concept.

Furthermore, as it is a dictation, 'tout' is pronounced 'tou' and 'tous' on its own is pronounced 'tousse' so this might have given you a clue.

Hope this helps!