Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[learner1]

Hello,
Merry Christmas, every one!

'He spends all his free time playing computer games.'

Is it fine to use 'whole' instead of 'all' here as in
'He spends his whole free time playing computer games.'

Thanks

[buddhaheart]

Merry Christmas to you and everybody! No, I don�t think you can.

[learner1]

Thank you very much, Buddhaheart. I wish you a Happy New Year!

[Kenji Noda]

Dear friends and teachers,
Below is the explanation in my Cobuild English usage dictionary:

When you talk about "the whole of" something, you mean all of it.
Instead of using "the whole of" in front of a noun group beginning with "the", you can simply use "whole" after "the".
For example, instead of saying 'The whole of the house was on fire', you can say 'The whole house was on fire'.
Also you can use like this:
I've never told this to anyone else in my whole life.

[learner1]