As a Whole vs On The Whole

There have always been 'clashes' between AmEng supporters and BrEng lovers. What language to learn? American or British? As for me I prefer British to American.

Now, let's have a closer look at both of theses phrases: 'As a whole ' and 'On the whole'.

Erene's design

A friend of mine said that Americans do not differ one phrase from the other.

I'm afraid I can't go along with Americans on that score. Well, both of these idiomatic prepositional phrases are synonymous. You can find loads of similar synonyms for both of them. For instance:

generally

basically

overall

commonly

largely

mainly

mostly

predominantly

principally

substantially

altogether

chiefly

customarily

effectively

habitually

usually

normally

ordinarily

regularly

virtually

by and large

in general

all in all

as a rule

in the main

all things considered

as a general rule

for the most part

generally speaking

to all intents and purposes

almost always

as a whole

in the general run of things

more often than not

on average

on balance

taking everything into consideration

all together

most of the time

to a great degree

to a large extent
collectively

altogether

unitedly

synchronously

contemporaneously

ensemble

communally

wholly

as one

in concert

in unison

all together

as a group

at the same time

all at once

at the same moment

at the same instant

in chorus

But how to distinguish ON THE WHOLE from AS A WHOLE in use by a non-native speaker's eye?

a Telegram Smiley

Well I set you straight on this matter.

The phrase AS A WHOLE is used when things/people are considered all together, entirely, as one single unit, whereas the phrase ON THE WHOLE refers to the most part of the matter- mainly, usually, but not entirely, excluding insignificant 'trifles'.

My examples:

Today Britain is putting the Earth at stake AS A WHOLE ( not on the whole), by promising to send depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine.

Everyone remember devastating health consequences for civilians and military AS A WHOLE in the conflict zones after such ammunition was used by the West in Yugoslavia and Iraq.

Western nazis AS A WHOLE ( NOT : on the whole/the main part of them. BUT ALL OF THEM ) are cancer to this planet.

The position of these phrases in sentences is important too. But I'd like to put the emphasis on the phrase "As a whole". However the position of the phrase "as a whole" is by many people thought to look right only after a noun, to me it is anything but. Well, commonly, the phrase "as a whole" comes after a noun but in this case it takes a function of a NOUN itself with a preposition 'as' — AS A WHOLE = LIKE A COMPLETE THING. But when it comes before a noun "As a whole children/the world/the country etc ...", in my my opinion, this entire phrase functions as an adverbial entity focusing attention on what unit it highlights and modifies. You know that adverbs can modify anything, don't you?

Thank you very much for stopping by.
If you have any question upon grammar, don't hesitate to ask me-- I'll try to help you.
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