Whole x All
Hi, everyone
Could you tell me if I should use "whole" or "all" in these sentences? Which of THESE sentences is right?
"The whole American media is talking about this" or ""All of the American media is talking about this"
"The Catholic Church's whole leadership needs reforming" or "All of the Catholic Church's leadership needs reforming"?
Thank you
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 4
1
All is a pronoun or an adjective. Whole is always an adjective.
All of your sentences make good communication sense to me. A grammarian or teacher may have some details to add about the subtleties of the prepositions like "of" or articles like "the" The meanings of all and whole do intermix and can be close to synonymous but at its most basic:
All of the sentences (number) The whole sentence (which part).
All the children (number) . The whole group (which group). If I add the "of" it clarifies that there might be other people or things.
All boys are males. (who is male). All of the boys (but maybe not the girls) went to gym class.
So all your sentences make sense the only difference is the emphasis on who or which.
HTH
Kurt
1
Hi Hernandez!
Both the sentences are technically correct. However, the ones that use "all" sound more natural.
You could also replace "whole" with "entire."
"The entire American media is talking about this."
"The Catholic Church's entire leadership needs reforming."
I hope this helps!
0
please
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