All vs. Whole

Form

Whole is an adjective, so it sits between a determiner and a singular countable noun: the whole day, my whole life, a whole pizza.

All comes before the determiner instead: all the students, all my money, all this time. All works with plural and uncountable nouns (all the books, all the information), while whole normally does not work with uncountable nouns: say “all the money”, not “the whole money”. With time words, all usually drops the: all day, all night, all week, which mean the same as the whole day, the whole night and the whole week. Before a pronoun use all of (all of them, all of us). Before a place name or a time phrase you can also use the whole of (the whole of Europe, the whole of last year), a slightly more emphatic alternative to all of.

When to Use It

1. 1

   Use the whole, my whole or a whole before a singular countable noun

   She ate the whole pizza.

2. 2

   Use all + the, my, this or these before a plural or uncountable noun

   All the students passed and I spent all my money.

3. 3

   Use all with no the before day, night, week, month, year, morning and similar time words

   It rained all weekend.

4. 4

   Use all of before a pronoun

   All of them were late.

5. 5

   Use whole before a plural noun only when you mean complete ones, not every one

   Whole villages were flooded — entire villages, though not necessarily every village.

6. 6

   Learn the fixed phrases as units: the whole point, the whole truth, all in all, and not all bad.

Common Mistakes

• Using whole with an uncountable noun: write all the information, not the whole information, and all the furniture, not the whole furniture.
• Putting whole before the article: write the whole day, not whole the day — whole comes after the, my or a.
• Leaving out the before whole: write I worked the whole day, not I worked whole day.
• Dropping of before a pronoun: write all of them, not all them.