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Is it correct to say : The party was on for all the night?


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AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgAugust 2020
An expression like "The party was on the whole night" would be more likely. "for all the night" doesn't collocate well for me as a native English speaker whereas "the whole night" or even "for the whole night" seems more comfortable

We would also probably and more commonly use informal expressions such as:

"The party went on all night."

"The party lasted all night / the whole night".

The phrasal verb "to be on" describes the process of something continuing that starts and stops with a switching action, e.g.

"The radio is on." = "I have started the radio and the radio continues to operate right now.

If you said something like "The party was on!", it would mean that within a second or two of starting, then the party is crowded, very busy, noisy and so on and this continues.