all day, all the day

[joham]

LONGMAN ENGLISH GRAMMAR says we can say 'all day' or 'all the day'; 'all year/month', 'all the year/month'.
But CAMBRIDGE LEARNER'S DICTIONARY says not to use 'the' in these phrases.

As an ESL learner, how should we use these phrases? Thank you.

[baqarah131]

There is an expression "all the day long", but it's unusual, maybe archaic.

Otherwise "all the day" is nearly impossible.
"The" creeps in only when something follows:
The baby was sleeping all the day that I visited her parents.
It snowed all the month of December.
I lived in China all the year 1984.

These sentences are possible, by I'm not sure all native speakers would accept them.

Otherwise, "all the day", etc., sound bad to me.

I don't know why, but "all day" and "all morning" and "all afternoon" and "all night" and "all year", are perfectly good English; "all week" is okay, but probably not as common, and I wouldn't say "all month" at all.

It puzzles me that Longman would give such strange advice.

regards
edward

Originally Posted by joham

LONGMAN ENGLISH GRAMMAR says we can say 'all day' or 'all the day'; 'all year/month', 'all the year/month'.
But CAMBRIDGE LEARNER'S DICTIONARY says not to use 'the' in these phrases.

As an ESL learner, how should we use these phrases? Thank you.

[joham]

Dear baqarah131,
Thank you very much for your help. And I must tell you that it was I, not Longman, who was mistaken. LONGMAN ENGLISH GRAMMAR, 5.22.2 says:

"All' can be used in: all (the) day/ night/ week/ year/ summer, but not with hour/ century. (I'm using LONGMAN'S Chinese translation, not the original grammar. So my sentence here is not its original description.)

I REALLY must apoligize to L.G. Alexander for this serious mistake. LONGMAN GRAMMAR is my favourite grammar book. And the word 'month' is not included in all these phrases.

[baqarah131]

I still think Longman is allowing "the" where it wouldn't ordinarily be used.

I think time expressions are really essential if you want to be fluent in English. Perhaps textbooks don't pay as much attention to them as they should.

I suggest you listen for these expressions, and look for them in your reading.

best wishes for success
edward