Microsoft Word says that I SHOULD NOT use "all" or "all of" when I mean a total or the whole of a singular item and SHOULD use "the entire" instead. I typed "I am sick of all the lie" and Microsoft Word gave me a green squiggly line starting from "all" to "the." I'd like to know if this were? true, or my Microsoft Word is just not updated.
Instead of "all" or "all of," use "the entire" when you mean a total or the whole of a singular item
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3I am sick of all the lies. (This is a question for ELL.)– DrewCommented Apr 23, 2017 at 15:25
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1Some 'grammar-correcting' devices are better ignored.– Edwin AshworthCommented Apr 23, 2017 at 15:48
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What's ELL? Google says it's english-language learner. Then why "all of me" doesn't get that green line. "Me" is singular, right?– XyenzCommented Apr 23, 2017 at 16:02
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And some 'grammar-correcting' devices are better not ignored.– XyenzCommented Apr 23, 2017 at 16:04
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@EdwinAshworth Not in this case. The given suggestion is correct, but just not as useful to the OP as it does not question whether the object should be plural in the first place.– Dog LoverCommented Apr 30, 2017 at 22:53
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1 Answer
If lie is singular, then your computer is right, it's awkward to write "all the lie." It would look to the reader like what you meant to say is "I'm sick of all the lies."
If you're trying to express that you're sick of every part of one lie, you have several options:
I'm sick of the whole lie.
I'm sick of the entire lie.
And you could use a thesaurus to find even more options.
If you want to say that you're sick of multiple lies, and you really want to keep "lie" singular for some reason, you could write:
I'm sick of every lie.
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Then why is "all of me" fine? "Me" is singular, right? Or is there a special rule for pronouns?– XyenzCommented Apr 24, 2017 at 2:56
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1@Xyenz It's not a hard and fast rule. "All of" can be confusing when used with a singular definite noun, but one that cannot be pluralized isn't prone to such confusion. For instance you could say she was the best in all of France or she was the best in the entire country. Commented Apr 24, 2017 at 22:55