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Chan-Seung Lee
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 1032
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 Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:15 am Post subject: a lot of |
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1.I have a lot of apples.
2.I have a whole lot of apples.
3.I have a whole of apples. |
I know that 'a lot of' is equal to 'a whole lot of'.
But I wonder if 'a whole of' is being used as the same meaning of 'a lot of' among native speakers.
Can you let me know?
Thanks. |
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redset
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 582
Location: England
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| Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:30 am Post subject: |
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| No - a 'whole' means all of something, if you drink a whole bottle of juice that means you drank the entire bottle, putting emphasis on the fact that you drank the full amount and didn't leave a little bit. You didn't just drink the bottle, you drank the WHOLE bottle - all of it, down to the last drop. If you have a lot of apples then you have a large number of apples, so people sometimes add whole to add emphasis in a similar way - if you have a whole lot of apples then you really do have a large number of them, not 'quite a lot' but a definitely a whole lot of apples! |
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Chan-Seung Lee
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 1032
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| Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:20 pm Post subject: quite a lot of |
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| if you have a whole lot of apples then you really do have a large number of them, not 'quite a lot' but a definitely a whole lot of apples! |
Thanks for your nice reply, RedSet!
I could understand the meaning of 'a whole '.
But I have one more question about the above quote which you mentioned. How many is 'quite a lot of'?
And also, I organized the order of quantity below from what I could quess.
If not correct, can you correct them?
below: quite a few of apples< quite a lot of apples< a lot of apples=a whole lot of apples=a good lot of apples=a great lot of apples
Thanks.
Last edited by Chan-Seung Lee on Wed Dec 06, 2006 6:06 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Chan-Seung Lee
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 1032
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| Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 8:25 pm Post subject: once again |
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| The Greeks invented a whole of hypotheses which turned out to be valuable later, which in their day couldn't be tested. |
In the excerpt, what does 'a whole of' mean? Does that mean 'a set of' or an author's grammar mistake? I wonder. Please let me know.
Thanks. |
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2006
Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 610
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| Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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"a whole of hypothesis" is not correct English. "a whole hypothesis" is grammatically correct but a bit odd. You can say a "complete hypothesis" if you aren't happy just saying "hypothesis".
The whole sentence is poor. A hypotheses is not "invented"; it's developed or made or put forth.
A better sentence is something like The Greeks made a hypothesis which couldn't be tested in their day but turned out to be (valuable)(valid) later. |
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Chan-Seung Lee
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 1032
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 6:22 am Post subject: redset |
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I've looking forward to Redset's reply to the second question.
Thanks. |
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