Inspired by Google Docs flagging the phrase “all right” with a nice red underline and asking me “did you mean ‘alright’?”
This infuriates me, personally. But I went to Google. First page of results had mixed results; it included quotes like:
“The form alright, though very common, is still considered by many people to be wrong or less acceptable than all right.”
“Well, as grammarian Bill Walsh puts it in his book Lapsing Into a Comma, “We word nerds have known since second grade that alright is not all right” (4). He was talking about “alright” as one word. It’s not OK.”
“Since the early 20th century some critics have insisted alright is wrong, but it has its defenders and its users.”
“adv. Nonstandard. All right.”
What do you all think?
ETA: I think I just realized that one big reason I was so “infuriated” was the implication by the checker that the phrase “all right” necessarily had to be wrong, enough to flag. Either that, or the implication that “all right” was incorrect which it obviously (to me) is not!
I definitely go with “all right” over “alright”. But “anymore” vs. “any more” is such a hard choice for me that I go out of my way to avoid it altogether.
Once, on this board, I tried to maintain that “alright” was 100% wrong for factual reasons. I still bear the bruises.
In the other “al-” words, “al(l)” does not bear the stress (this is the argument I lost: I claimed “all right” was two words of equal stress) and they are adverbs, which “all right” can be. So I’d say that (1) if used as an adverb and (2) if the two syllables do not bear equal stress, all right, but otherwise, such as spelling is an abomination unto the Lord and Noah Webster.
My 7 year old daughter gets a list of 10 words each week to learn for a spelling test each Friday. A couple of months ago one of the words was “alright.” I didn’t like it, but it looks like it is becoming more common. She attends an exclusive Grammar school, which I would expect to be more conservative than others.
I still voted “all right, all the time.”
Edited to add: Not sure if it makes a difference, but it’s an Australian school.
I consider using “alright” to be akin to a sexual perversion: it’s not something I would consider doing myself, but I try not to judge those who do. I would, however, advise discretion if asked.
I think it should be just “alright”, but I voted Either is acceptable. I’m waiting for the All right, all the time! voters to all die*, then I’ll change my vote.
I picked “It depends on the context/situation/whatever.” If the context is dialogue, poetry, song lyrics or a messageboard/text/twitter/blog/facebook, alright is acceptable. It’s not okay in anything approaching formal writing (that isn’t creative in nature as previously outlined).
This is a matter of style. Alright was widely used in comic books* when they were still quite literate (long before the time of many here), which makes it OK so far as I’m concerned.
In other words, both are acceptable, IMHO.
*Note that I’m referring to comic books, and not “graphic novels.”
Alright/all right is not the type of phrase likely to show up in a scholarly publication. It’s colloquial. If I were proofreading a term paper and saw the phrase “alright/all right,” I would mark it as poor word choice and recommend a rewording, no matter which spelling was used.
So IMO, the spelling is inconsequential. The meaning is preserved either way, so who gives a flying flip? There’s no reason to get pedantic about colloquialisms. Also, I was never taught that alright is all wrong. Perhaps it’s an age gap.
I tend to use both variations, depending on exactly what connotation I’m trying to get across. Like, I might say that it’s alright to cross the street now, but that customer knocking over all the boxes in the store isn’t all right.
If there’s a relevant style guide, look unto it for guidance. If there is no style guide, use your preference or the version you think will be most pleasing to your intended audience. This is how I decide most word usage questions.
