Improve your English: ALL or WHOLE?

845,548 views ・ 2013-05-26

Adam’s English Lessons


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Hi again. Adam here. www.engvid.com. I have another lesson for you today. This is actually
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a request by Feresque -- Feresser? I hope I'm saying it right. Sorry about that. It
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was in the comments section of www.engvid.com. Please leave questions and comments and requests
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and we'll do our best to get them for you. So the request was: the difference between
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"all" and "whole". Now, the reason I also chose this lesson is because this is a very
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common mistake that students make. They mix these two up all the time. They have very
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specific roles in situations. We're going to look at them today.
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The first and most important thing to remember about "all" versus "whole" is where to put
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the definite article "the". So it's always "all the" whatever you're talking about, "the
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whole" whatever you're talking about, so always "the" after "all", "the" before "whole". Now,
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they sound a little bit similar, "all", "whole", but not. Right? So be careful about pronunciation.
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Sometimes people might think you're mixing them up just because of pronunciation: "all",
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"whole". Make sure you get that "H" sound and that "O" sound together.
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Now, what's the difference between "all" and "whole"? "All", you're talking about "everything".
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Whatever it is you're talking about, you're talking about all of it, basically: everything,
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one, etc. When you're talking about "whole", you're talking about a "complete" something:
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a complete package, a complete group, a complete container of something, right? Whatever it
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is you're talking about, it has to be complete, right? It has pieces inside, and then the
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whole is the complete collection of whatever it is you're talking about, whereas "all"
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is just everything that's involved with that noun, etc. So I'm going to give you a very
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quick example: You're sitting -- your friend went on a trip out of town. He had to take
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the bus for two hours to his friend's house in Montreal, let's say. He comes back. You
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ask him "How was the trip?", and he goes, "Oh, my God, there was a baby on the bus,
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and the baby cried all the time." But if he said, "The baby cried the whole time", do
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you think that it's a different meaning? Usually people will understand the same thing, but
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technically, "all the time" doesn't mean two hours crying. It means "cried, stopped, cried,
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stopped, cried, stopped." It seemed like he was crying throughout the trip, okay? But
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if somebody said, "The baby cried the whole time", I understand "two hours, baby crying,
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wah, wah, wah, two hours." It could drive a person crazy. "All the time" -- he cried
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enough times that it seemed like a long time. "The whole time" means for two hours straight,
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non-stop. Okay. So that's a big difference between "all" and "whole", okay? "The whole
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time", I'm talking about the specific duration, the complete journey, two hours. "All the
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time" - always: always crying, stopping. Always crying, stopping, crying, stopping, crying,
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stopping. Not very much fun. But, "I studied all day" -- I have a test tomorrow; I studied
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all day. "I studied the whole day." In this case, I would understand the exact same thing
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as well. You can switch these two. But "all day" means, "I studied. I took a break. I
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studied. I didn't do anything else -- only studied today." But "I studied the whole day"
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means "I sat at my desk, and I studied; I didn't stop." So that's one of the big differences
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between "all" and "whole". "Whole" we're talking about time, non-stop, continuous. "All" means
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in that day, many times, and that's basically -- you did -- that's the one activity that
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you did, okay? So this is one aspect of "all" and "whole". "The" and duration, like, "always"
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and the "complete" time of whatever it is you're talking about. We're going to look
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at a couple of other differences that are very important that you need to keep in mind.
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Okay, so now we're going to look at a few other differences that are sometimes very
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small but important. So let's look at the two examples here first: "All my friends came."
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"My whole group of friends came." What do you notice first about the differences between
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these two? One, the possessive adjective -- my, his, your, etc. -- with "all" comes after
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"all" -- comes before "whole": "My whole group of friends came." So I can say "all my friends",
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all individual friends, right? But remember what I said about "whole". "Whole" means something
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complete, a complete package of something. So I have "group of friends" came. The meaning
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is more or less the same, okay? But here I talk about the group; here I talk about the
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individuals. Very important to remember. But most important -- possessive, after "all",
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before "whole", okay? That's one. Let's look at another thing. Sometimes you
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can interchange the two words. The sentence looks exactly the same, but the meaning is
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very different, okay? "All cities were destroyed." So let's say for example there was an earthquake
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or a volcano eruption in Hawaii, okay? In Hawaii there's -- there are many cities. Volcano
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erupted; lava flowed; earth shook; etc. "All cities were destroyed." But if I say, "Whole
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cities were destroyed", the meaning is very different. Here, "All cities were destroyed"
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means no more cities. Every city -- destroyed. But if I say "whole cities", it means some
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cities were completely destroyed, okay? I put marker on myself, sorry. "Whole cities
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destroyed" means "one city, completely destroyed, but there are other cities that are okay."
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This one -- no more cities; all flat, all covered in lava. Okay, so that's one other
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thing. With "all", when you're talking about non-countable
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nouns -- money, water, air, sugar, milk, non-countable nouns -- you're usually going to use "all".
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You're not going to say "whole the money" because it doesn't make any sense because
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it's not a complete thing. It's a singular, non-countable. "All the money was stolen.
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All the water was drunk", or spilled or whatever the thing is. And you're not going -- and
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you're usually going to use "whole" with a singular, countable noun. You prefer to use
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"whole" than "all" but it depends on the situation. Now, some people are going to ask me in the
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comments section -- but now they won't because I'll give you the answer right now -- why
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don't I say "all of my friends"? Why don't I say it? Because I don't need to, okay? This
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is an extra word. You don't need to use it. The only time you need to use "all of" is
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with an object pronoun -- all of them, all of it, all of us, all of whom -- with a clause,
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etc. Otherwise, you just don't need "of". It's a useless word. It doesn't help. It doesn't
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do anything. If I say "the whole of", it's also the exact same. I don't need to use it.
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It means "the complete package". So that's another difference.
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The last one, and this is very, very important especially for those of you who are going
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to be taking tests and grammar is important: "All students need to come to class early
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tomorrow." "The whole class needs to come early tomorrow." Can you see the difference?
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Main thing to remember: with "all" and plural, you have the matching verb, students "need".
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Remember with "whole" you have a complete package, one package. The whole class "needs
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to", singular with the "S", plural without the "S", okay?
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So now you see all the differences between "all" and "whole", and I know that students
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are going to tell me, "I studied the whole time" or "I study all -- whole the time",
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that's what I hear often, "I study whole the time, but I don't improve." Now you will improve.
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I hope, anyway. Go to www.engvid.com. Take the quiz. Practice a little bit more. If you
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have any questions or comments, write them in the comments. Also check out my video on
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www.youtube.com. Subscribe to my channel. It would be very nice of you, and I will see
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you again very soon. Thanks.
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