All / Every / Whole

Everybody / Everyone / Everything vs. All

When you want to say “100% of people” or “100% of things” in a general way, use everybody, everyone, or everything — not all by itself.

• The CEO thanked everybody for their hard work. (not all thanked)
• She checked the contract and everything looked fine. (not all looked fine)
• Before the audit, everyone submitted their reports on time.

All on its own sounds incomplete. Instead, pair it with a noun, with of, or place it after the subject:

Pattern	Example
all + noun	*All employees must attend the training.*
all of + us/you/them	*All of them passed the certification exam.*
subject + all	We all agreed on the new schedule.
all about	The workshop covered all about data security.
all = the only thing(s)	*All I need is the signed form.*

Whole and All

Whole means complete or entire. Use it with singular countable nouns:

• I spent the whole afternoon preparing the slides. (= the complete afternoon)
• She read the whole report before the meeting. (= every page, start to finish)
• Our team worked on a whole new proposal from scratch.

Do not use whole with uncountable nouns. Use all instead:

Uncountable noun	Correct	Incorrect
money	*all the money*	the whole money
information	*all the information*	the whole information
equipment	*all the equipment*	the whole equipment
luggage	*all my luggage*	my whole luggage

Notice the word order difference. Whole goes after the/my/a, while all goes before:

• I read the whole contract. (the + whole + noun)
• I reviewed all the data. (all + the + noun)

Every Day vs. All Day vs. The Whole Day

These three expressions look similar but mean different things.

Every tells you how often something happens (frequency):

• We have a stand-up meeting every morning. (= each morning, repeatedly)
• The server backs up every six hours.
• Performance reviews happen every six months.

All day and the whole day mean from start to finish (duration):

• I was in back-to-back meetings all day. (= the complete day)
• She spent the whole week onboarding the new hires.

Note: say all day, all week, all morning — without “the”. But with whole, you need the article: the whole day, the whole week.

Expression	Meaning	Example
every time	each occasion	*Every time I open the app, it crashes.*
all the time	always, continuously	The printer jams all the time.

Every / Everybody / Everyone / Everything + Singular Verb

Even though these words refer to multiple people or things, they take a singular verb:

• *Every desk in the office has a monitor.* (not have)
• *Everybody is expected at the all-hands meeting.* (not are)
• *Everything was ready for the product launch.* (not were)

However, use they/them/their to refer back to everybody/everyone:

• *Everyone submitted their timesheet on Friday.* (= his or her timesheet)
• *Everybody said they enjoyed the team dinner.*

Quick Self-Check