Hi, Italki community )))
Could anyone explain me (using a few examples -sentences) what the differences ? To me the meanings of them are the same.
Many thanks for your help.
Hey Elena,
They are for all intents and purposes synonyms, and in most cases (like, 99% of those that I can think of) they are interchangeable:
E.g. "he's eaten the entire (whole) cake!"
As a noun, also:
E.g. "We'll be there for the whole (entirety of) the weekend"
Sometimes whole can be used as a noun when entirety cannot. For example, it forms a coherent whole. You wouldn't say it forms a coherent entirety (I mean, maybe you could... but it sounds ugly).
Also, there are a few other set phrases (e.g. as a whole) and cases (e.g. you can make me whole) where only whole works. Phrases like he swallowed it whole have equivalents like he swallowed it in its entirety, but as you can see they're not completely interchangeable.
Generally I'd stick with using whole. It seems to fit more use cases. Entire or Entirety sound a bit more formal, and are therefore not used as often.
Caveat: as a native English speaker (and not a teacher by any stretch of the imagination) I'm just telling you what sounds natural to me. Far be it from me to tell you what is grammatically correct ;)
Nick
“Whole” comes from “unhurt”, and means a single object that has not been subdivided.
“Entire” comes from “complete”, and means no part has been left out.
They are different when you are talking about collections of objects; the entire lot of cars, or the entire staff, since these are collections of distinct objects. You would say a whole loaf of bread or a whole person, since these are single objects not usually considered a collection of parts.
The expression “whole life” considers one’s life to be a single unit that has not been subdivided. An “entire life” means all the parts (years? experiences?) of a life. In this case either could be used.
Google
Elena there is one difference that is not mentioned yet. The word 'whole' has Germanic roots, and 'entire' is I believe of Latin or French origin. It happens often that you will find two words that roughly mean the same thing, but have these different roots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_with_dual_French_and_Anglo-Saxon_variations
Mostly like Nicolas said, the word of French or Latin origin is used in a more formal setting. This is because in the early days, only the nobility spoke French and Latin, and the common folks just English.
