Learn English > English lessons and exercises > English test #106353: All or Whole ....

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All or Whole ....

'ALL'/ 'WHOLE' : Here again, are two very simple words that beginners (and others ) have a few difficulties to handle. A choice must be made between these words, and some of you find it difficult to make it. I'll help you find your way ...

THE ALL BLACKS

1) ALL :

- 'All ' isn't followed by 'of' when it is placed just in front of a noun :

ex : All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy !

ex : All play and no work makes Jack a silly boy !

- In front of the noun : 'Day' :

ex : He's so tired that he's dreaming of staying in bed all day ( long ).

- 'All' is followed by 'of' in front of a determiner or a complement personal pronoun . (In front of a determiner, 'of' isn't compulsory, especially in British English.)

ex : Don't take only 3 sweets ! Take all of them ! = (complement personnel pronoun)

ex : All (of) the pictures I had taken were blurred ... (determiner)

ex : Who's drunk all the milk left in the fridge ?

- All followed by a plural noun.

ex : All the students were here for the first lesson of the year.

ex : If you could read all the books in this library, you'd be very learned.

- All in front of a proper noun or a pronoun => 'the whole' or 'all of '

ex : I've read all of Agatha Christie's novels = I've read the whole of Agatha Christie's novels = I've read all the novels by Agatha Christie.

BEWARE ! everybody + singular ;

ex : Everybody agrees with him.

2) WHOLE = totally, the entire object or idea.

- Used in front of singular countables = total, entire.

ex : My whole body was shaking with fear.

ex : The whole room was a mess.

- Whole is used with collective nouns (family, class, form, school, group, party, police, army ...)

ex : The whole family was gathered to see the newborn baby !

- After 'a' and 'an' , 'WHOLE' is preferred to 'all.'

ex : She ate a whole chocolate cake and was sick all night ...

ex : I spent a whole weekend doing the laundry.

You're now ready for the test ! Go for it !

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1. Steve is a specialist : he has studied Charlie Chaplin's films.

2. of students was missing because of a severe epidemic of flu...

3. Little Ann can recognize characters, even the most recent ones.

4. As I wanted to buy some tickets for the show, I had to stand in a long line and finally got the precious sesames.

5. on the shelves have been classified and checked by the librarian.

6. Do you know that you were given for Easter is now finished ! You greedy boy !

7. characters are shown in Disneyland-Paris !

8. It's a tiring job : you'll have to stand without ever taking a rest !

9. I' d like to know before the day of the wedding.

10. In one of Hitchcock's films, the detectives ate the murder weapon : which had then been frozen !

End of the free exercise to learn English: All or Whole ....
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