all

[Anonymous]

All the things
All of the things
Which one is correct?

All the time
All time
Which one is correct?

Thanks!!

 

[RonBee]

Any of them could be correct.

All the things:

• All the things she said are running thru my head.

All of the things:

• All of the things that are here, the tubers, plants, trees and wildlife, whatever, are God-given.
  http://www.ourplanet.com/imgversn/105/voices.html

All the time:

• She does that annoying thing she does all the time. It gets on my nerves.

All time:

• I will be with you for all time.

[Edited to fix the link.]

 

[MikeNewYork]

All the things
All of the things
Which one is correct?

All the time
All time
Which one is correct?

Thanks!!

Ron has given you some good examples.

The phrases "all the [plural noun]" and "all of the [plural noun]" are interchangeable. They have the same meaning.

This is true of "all the time" and "all of the time". The phrase "all time" is different, and, as Ron said, "for all time" means "forever".

 

[bread]

act...

Um...but in the ACT test, it asks me to distinguish the differences between "all the+plural noun" and "all of the plural noun."
Is it a formal way to interchange both phrases?
Or I guess I might have misunderstood something...
Thanks!!

 

[MikeNewYork]

Re: act...

Um...but in the ACT test, it asks me to distinguish the differences between "all the+plural noun" and "all of the plural noun."
Is it a formal way to interchange both phrases?
Or I guess I might have misunderstood something...
Thanks!!

If I had to guess, I would say that "all of the" is the original, more grammatical phrase. The "all the" form seems to be shortening of the original. If that is the case, the long form would have been considered to be more formal at one time. However, I haven't heard any objections to the shorter form. They seem to be equally acceptable.