Yes, you say 'the whole of London', not 'the whole London'.
You should use 'the whole of', not 'the whole', before proper nouns and pronouns, for example, you say 'the whole of Europe', 'the whold of it', etc.
So, if you say 'I've eaten the whole cake', I may ask 'Have you really eaten the whole of it?' - not 'the whole it'.
You also use 'the whole of' before another determiner, such as 'my', 'this', 'the'. You say 'the whole of my life', 'the whole of the winter' or 'the whole of this course'.
The word 'whole' can be so tricky to use. You can say 'a whole year', 'the whole afternoon' or 'my whole life' instead.
Yes, you could use 'all of' instead of 'the whole of'. You can say 'all of London' or 'all of it'. You use 'all the' with uncountable nouns - you say 'all the advice', not 'the whole advice'.
You could try to make some sentences by using the word 'whole'. I'll try to correct you if you really want me to correct the mistakes.
Comments
Hi Adaline,
Thanks for making the sentences. All of them are correct except for 'Tom have' - it should be 'Tom has'. It must be a typo, though.
Keep it up!
Dear Expector,
Here is my few sentence,
Sheeeba was busy the whole day
Tom have a whole lot of ideas
I’ve known my friend her whole life
We must study our whole life
Amina ate a whole packet of crisps
I spent the whole week with my mum
Thank you for the lovely blog and its very useful.
@Bijan
Good question! You should use the objective case after 'the whole of', so 'the whole of you', 'the whole of me' or 'the whole of them' is possible. I'm not so sure about the difference between AmE and BrE in the usage of 'whole'.
You say 'the whole year', 'a whole year', 'the whole of the year', 'all of the year' or 'all year' - not 'the whole of year' or 'all of year'.
Thanks for asking!
@Risty
Great! I enjoyed your sentences - it seems you can use 'whole' correctly. Keep it up!
Dear Sir Expector, these tips are useful and easy to learn. You explained it well and I would like to try some of the "whole's " here... :D
I took the whole day off.
I don't see Cathy the whole lot.
I ate a whole lot of cake.
She was nervous the whole time.
I intend to stay a whole week.
Please correct my mistakes, Sir, thank you. ^,^
Dear Expector Smith,
Thank you very much because you have presented an excellent lesson briefly and nicely.
I myself always had many problems with using the words "whole", "all of" and so on.
I could never find your explanation in any grammar book, so thank you for your great lesson.
Three questions, please:
1. You said, "...before proper nouns and pronouns...".
Is the whole of you (and also the whole of I, the whole of he/she and so on), correct?
2. Are "the whole of me, the whole of mine, the whole of myself, the whole of them and so on" correct, please?
3. Is there any difference between American English and Britain English in the subject?
Here are my sentences:
1. I know the whole of Tehran.
2. I know the whole of English Club.
3. I always drink the whole of my cup of coffee in the morning.
4. I would like to see the whole of England.
5. The whole of my girlfriend's body (body language) tells me that she likes me very much.
6. I have never told a lie in the whole of my life.
7. I searched for my pen the whole of my room.
8. I searched for this lesson the whole of this website.
9. I never stop running in the whole of the winter.
10. Yesterday, I stayed at home in the whole of the afternoon.
11. I learn English in the whole of year.
12. I would like to see all of London.
13. I learn English in all of year.
14. I usually drink a cup of coffee in all of mornings.
Thanks in advance and best wishes,
15. My teacher gave me all the advice about English grammar.
16. The New York Times gave me all the news.
17. My friend gave me all the information about London.