All Vs Whole

Typical mistakes: 

The sat reading the all time. 

I've lived here my all life. 

Whole London was burning. 

She drank the whole wine. 

These two words are easy confuse, perhaps because their pronunciations are similar. 

1. 'Whole' and 'all' are often used with the same meaning. However, the word order is different. 'All' come before an article, possessive or other 'determiner'; 'whole' comes after articles, ete. Compare the following: 

All the time     the whole time 

All my life       my whole life 

All this confusion     this whole confusion 

Note what 'whole' cannot be used with a singular noun if there is no article or other determiner. You can say 'The whole city was burning, but not 'Whole London was burning.' 

2. With plural nouns, 'whole' and 'all' have different meanings. 'Whole' mean 'complete', 'entire'; 'all' has a similar meaning to 'every'. Compare the following: 

All Indian tribe suffered from white settlement in America (= Every Indian tribe suffered...). 

Whole Indian tribes were killed off (= Complete tribes were killed off; nobody was left alive in these tribes). 

3. 'Whole' is not used so often with uncountable nouns and cannot be used with mass nouns. You can say 'all the money', or 'all the wine', but not 'the whole money' or the 'the whole wine'. 

4. The expression 'the whole of' can be used with singular words instead of 'whole'. 'The whole of' comes before articles, possessives, etc. 

The whole of the time     The whole of this confusion     The whole of my life