| A |
All and everybody/everyone
We do not normally use all to mean everybody/everyone:
- Everybody had a great time at the party. (not All enjoyed)
But we say all of us / all of you / all of them:
- All of us had a great time at the party. (not Everybody of us)
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| B |
All and everything
Sometimes you can use all or everything:
- I'll do all I can to help. or I'll do everything I can to help.
You can say 'all I can' / 'all you need' etc., but we do not normally use all alone:
- He thinks he knows everything. (not he knows all)
- Our holiday was a disaster. Everything went wrong. (not All went wrong)
But you can say all about:
- He knows all about computers.
We also use all (not everything) to mean 'the only thing(s)':
- All I've eaten today is a sandwich. (= the only thing I've eaten today)
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| C |
Every / everybody / everyone / everything are singular words, so we use a singular verb:
- Every seat in the theatre was taken.
- Everybody has arrived. (not have arrived)
But we use they/them/their after everybody/everyone:
- Everybody said they enjoyed themselves. (= everybody enjoyed himself or herself)
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| D |
Whole and all
Whole = complete, entire. Most often we use whole with singular nouns:
- Did you read the whole book? (= all the book, not just a part of it)
- Emily has lived her whole life in the same town.
- I was so hungry, I ate a whole packet of biscuits. (= a complete packet)
We use the/my/her etc. before whole. Compare whole and all:
her whole life but all her life
We do not normally use whole with uncountable nouns. We say:
- I've spent all the money you gave me. (not the whole money)
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| E |
Every/all/whole with time words
We use every to say how often something happens (every day / every Monday / every ten minutes / every three weeks etc.):
- When we were on holiday, we went to the beach every day. (not all days)
- The bus service is excellent. There's a bus every ten minutes.
- We don't see each other very often - about every six months.
All day / the whole day = the complete day from beginning to end:
- We spent all day / the whole day on the beach.
- Dan was very quiet. He didn't say a word all evening / the whole evening.
Note that we say all day (not all the day), all week (not all the week) etc.
Compare all the time and every time:
- They never go out. They are at home all the time. (= always, continuously)
- Every time I see you, you look different. (= each time, on every occasion)
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