All, every and whole

All, every and whole

A. All and everybody/everyone

We do not normally use all to mean everybody/everyone:

* Everybody enjoyed the party. (not 'All enjoyed...')

But note that we say all of us/you/them, not 'everybody of...':

* All of us enjoyed the party. (not 'everybody of us')

B. All and everything

Sometimes you can use all or everything:

* I'll do all I can to help. or I'll do everything I can to help.

You can say 'all I can'/'all you need' etc. but we do not normally use all alone:

* He thinks he knows everything. (not 'he knows all')

* Our holiday was a disaster. Everything went wrong. (not 'All went wrong')

We use all in the expression all about:

* They told us all about their holiday.

We also use all (not 'everything') to mean the only thing(s):

* All I've eaten today is a sandwich. (= the only thing I've eaten today)

C. Every/everybody/everyone/everything are singular words, so we use a singular verb:

* Every seat in the theatre was taken.

* Everybody has arrived. (not 'have arrived')

But we often use they/them/their after everybody/everyone:

* Everybody said they enjoyed themselves. (= he or she enjoyed himself or herself)

D. All and whole

Whole = complete, entire. Most often we use whole with singular nouns:

* Did you read the whole book? (= all the book, not just a part of it)

* She has lived her whole life in Scotland.

We normally use the/my/her etc. before whole. Compare whole and all:

the whole book/all the book her whole life/all her life

You can also use: a whole ....

* Jack was so hungry, he ate a whole packet of biscuits. (= a complete packet)

We do not normally use whole with uncountable nouns. We say:

* I've spent all the money you gave me. (not 'the whole money')

E. Every/all/whole with time words

We use every to say how often something happens. So we say every day/every Monday/every ten

minutes/every three weeks etc.:

* When we were on holiday, we went to the beach every day. (not 'all days')

* The bus service is very good. There's a bus every ten minutes.

* Ann gets paid every four weeks.

All day/the whole day = the complete day from beginning to end:

* We spent all day/the whole day on the beach.

* He was very quiet. He didn't say a word all evening/the whole evening.

Note that we say all day (not 'all the day'), all week (not 'all the week') etc.

Compare all the time and every time:

* They never go out. They are at home all the time. (= always--not 'every time')

* Every time I see you, you look different. (= each time, on every occasion)