Dear friends,
I’m always confused between these words, for example:
“I want to get all money.” or “I want to get all of the money.”
“Someone’s taken all my books.” or “Someone’s taken all of my books.”
“All the dogs here are mine.” or “All of the dogs here are mine.”
“He didn’t say a word all day.” or “He didn’t say a word all of the day.”
Please somebody help to explain to me which one is correct? Why?
Thanks so much,
Siam
I want to get all money."– Not natural, but would mean all the money in the world.
“I want to get all of the money.”- All of some specific cache or source of money.
“Someone’s taken all my books.”
“Someone’s taken all of my books.”-- These 2 are the same; ‘of’ may be omitted.
“All the dogs here are mine.”
“All of the dogs here are mine.”-- These 2 are the same; ‘of’ may be omitted.
“He didn’t say a word all day.”– Fine
“He didn’t say a word all of the day.”-- Same meaning but not a usual formation; ‘of the’ is normally omitted.
Dear Mister Micawber,
Thanks so much for the explanation. It seems “all” and “all of” have very close meaning. Do you have any guideline? When we should use “all” or “all of”? Or the both are similar?
Many thanks,
Siam