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All and whole

1. All and whole have similar meanings. They can both be used with singular nouns to mean complete. 

All and whole لها نفس المعنى. يستخدم كلاهما مع الأسماء المفردة ليكون معناها كاملا.

■The word order is different.

◇He lived all his life in Africa. OR He lived all of his life in Africa. (Word order: all (of) + determiner + noun)

◇He lived his whole life in Africa. (Word order: determiner + whole + noun)

◇I spent the whole day in bed.

◇I spent all (of) the day in bed.

2. Differences between all and whole

■We do not normally use all before indefinite articles (a/an).

◇You have eaten a whole loaf. (NOT You have eaten all a loaf.)

◇I learned a whole lesson in ten minutes. (NOT I learned all a lesson in two minutes.)

◇She wrote a whole novel in two weeks.

○We do not usually use whole with uncountable nouns.

◇The cat has drunk all the milk. (More natural than The cat has drunk the whole milk.)

3. Whole and whole of

■Before proper nouns and pronouns, we use the whole of.

◇The whole of Paris was talking about her affairs. (NOT Whole Paris was talking about her affairs.)

Idioms 15

• Piece of cake

A job, task or other activity that is easy or simple.

• Put wool over other people's eyes

This means to deceive someone into thinking well of them.

• See eye to eye

This idiom is used to say that two (or more people) agree on something.

• Sit on the fence

This is used when someone does not want to choose or make a decision.

• Speak of the devil!

This expression is used when the person you have just been talking about arrives.

• Steal someone's thunder

To take the credit for something someone else did.

• Take with a grain of salt

This means not to take what someone says too seriously.

• Taste of your own medicine

Means that something happens to you, or is done to you, that you have done to someone else

• To hear something straight from the horse's mouth

To hear something from the authoritative source.

• Whole nine yards

Everything. All of it.

• Wouldn't be caught dead

Would never like to do something

• Your guess is as good as mine

To have no idea, do not know the answer to a question