Do you ever wonder about the difference between 'all,' 'every', and 'whole'?

They all have similar meanings, but are used in different ways.

'All' means the whole amount of something. 100 percent. It is often followed by uncountable nouns or plural nouns.

He ate all the sugar.

All children love sweets.

'Every' has a similar meaning to 'all' - it means 'each one without exception'. 

I go to the gym every day.

'Whole' means the complete amount of something, and is followed by uncountable nouns or singular nouns.

I ate the whole cake.

The whole airport is closed.

Bye for now.

'Each' and 'every'. Sometimes you can use either, but not always.

In a group, 'each' refers to individual things in turn. 'Every' refers to all the things together.

If I have time, I say 'bye' to each of my colleagues. If I don't, I say bye to every colleague at the same time.

If we have two things, we have to use 'each'. If we have three or more, we can use each or every.

I have a shoe on each foot.

Lions have sharp claws on each or every paw.

'Each' can be used as a pronoun while 'every' can't.

Look at those cakes. I want a slice of each.

'Every' object is together, 'each' object is on its own.

'Each' is for two or more. 'Every' is for three or more.

'Each' can be a pronoun and 'every' can't.

'Through' can mean lots of things and be used in lots of different contexts - let's look at some common uses.

Meaning number one: 'through' can mean from one side or end of something to the other.  

This is about place or physical space.

We pushed through the crowd to get to the front.  

Meaning number two: 'through' can mean from the beginning to the end of a period - this is about time.

We sang and danced through the whole concert.

Meaning number three: 'through' can be similar in meaning to 'using'. 

We were lucky to get last minute tickets through a friend.

Meaning number four: 'through' can also mean finished or completed.

We were exhausted but happy when the concert was through.

And we too are through with this lesson.

Hi everyone, Tom here from BBC learning English in London, and today I'm going to tell you what to say after the word 'wish'.

When we're talking about wishes, we're talking about situations that are imaginary or unreal.

To show this, after saying 'I wish' we use the past to talk about the wish which is in the present, so I could say: I wish I had a cup of tea. Ah thank you.  

Now, if we want to make a wish about the past, we need to use the past past or the past perfect.  

For example: I wish I had chosen a more formal shirt before I filmed this video today.  

Hi, I'm Dan from BBC learning English, and today I'm going to talk to you about infinitives of purpose.

English has something called the infinitive of purpose.

We use it to explain why we do something.

'To explain why we do something' is an infinitive of purpose.

Why do we use it?

Another example is: I went home to eat.

We make our sentence 'I went home' and then attach a full infinitive verb 'to eat'.

This doesn't work with nouns, for example: I went home to food.  

To use a noun we use 'for': I went home for food. 

Finally, we can also use 'for' to talk about doing something to help someone, for example: I made this video for you to learn - you're welcome.  

Let's take a minute to look at different ways you can apologise in a formal situation.  

Imagine you're in an important meeting at work and you interrupted your boss.

To say 'sorry'  you might say 'sorry', 'excuse me', 'pardon me', 'apologies', 'I sincerely apologise for interrupting', or 'for the interruption'.

Because 'for' is a preposition, you can either use a gerund or a noun.

Now, imagine you're in the same important meeting at work and you give a presentation in front of your boss that is incomplete and full of mistakes.  

To say sorry you might say 'I'm afraid I didn't finish the presentation'.

Don't be confused - 'afraid' does not mean scared here. 

It's like sorry but more formal, and notice that after 'afraid' we use a full clause or sentence. 

Hi, I'm Sian from BBC learning English and today I'm going to share four British slang words with you.

So, these are words you should only use in an informal situation.

The first one is 'gutted'. This is an adjective and means very sad or disappointed.

I just failed my driving test for the fourth time - I'm gutted.  

Number two is 'knackered'. This is also an adjective and means really really tired.

I went to a party last night and now I'm knackered.

Next, we have 'skint'. If someone is skint, they have no money or very little money.

I can't come out tonight - I'm skint.

Our fourth slang word is the opposite of skint - 'loaded'.

If someone is loaded, they are very very rich.

I just won the lottery - I'm loaded.

Let's look at the difference between 'on time' and 'in time'.

They often mean the same but sometimes they're different.

'On time' means according to a schedule or a deadline.

If I don't finish my work on time, my boss will be angry.

My train is never on time.

'In time' means not too late to be successful.

So, I missed my deadline but I still got the presentation finished in time for the meeting.

My train was late but it still arrived in time for me to get to work early.  

Neither my presentation nor my train were on time but they were in time for me to do what I needed to do.

It's good to be on time - it's even more important to be in time.

The difference is down to how flexible your schedule is, but be careful: sometimes if you're not on time, you won't be in time either.

Hi guys, this is Kee from BBC Learning English. Today, I'm going to tell you about some informal ways of using English.

In English, when we want to tell a friend about something, we don't use the word 'notify' - that's what businesses do.

Businesses notify their customers and the Prime Minister might notify her ministers, but we don't notify our friends about our weekend plans - it's too formal.

In English, we say I'm going to let my friend know that I'm going out.  

'Let him know', not 'notify'. Let him know.

Now you know.

Hello everyone, I'm Sam from BBC Learning English and today we are going to look at the difference between 'so' and 'such'.

To make an adjective stronger, we use 'so', for example: Michael is so nice.

We use such when we want to make an adjective plus a noun stronger, for example: Michael is such a nice person.  

For this reason, it's not correct to say 'Michael is so nice person' because we have the adjective 'nice' and the noun 'person' together.

It's so simple, right?