All Right v. Alright

In dialogue, "alright" would seem to work. The proper form is "all right." I say this with the utmost trepidation, as I'm not an expert, so you may want to wait for a more expert opinion.

"All right" is the preferred form.

While there's a lot of leeway for informality in dialogue, I wouldn't simply spell something with the less-preferred spelling if it sounds the same either way, which these two do.

Breaking rules in dialogue is more often reserved for colloquial grammar or pronunciation (if you absolutely have to do dialect) than spelling. If someone uses informal or outright wrong grammar while speaking, it says something about his/her character, but if the author, in essence, transcribes his/her words wrong (or at least in the less acceptable version), it doesn't say anything about the character.

Of course, if the character wrote a note to someone and used "alright" (or something that was more blatantly incorrect usage or spelling), it might say something about his character.

JD

Collins Dictionary says:

alright adv. Not standard. Variant spelling of all right.

I always thought that alright was the correct way, but it seems I'm wrong. Alright is all right, but not as right as all right.

I always spell it as two words.

Silver King said:

In dialogue, "alright" would seem to work. The proper form is "all right." I say this with the utmost trepidation, as I'm not an expert, so you may want to wait for a more expert opinion.

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According to Bryan Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage, "alright" may be becoming accepted in British English, but not in American.

Personally, I am not at all sure why "alright" should be any less acceptible than "already." But it is.

FWIW, I edited a fiction anthology that had a lot of dialect (very well done, I thought). I made sure that the usage throughout was "alright" because the more informal tone was appropriate for the dialogue. (Others might disagree, I grant you.) Had the characters been, say, well-educated middle-class suburbanites, then "alright" would not have worked.

--Ken

ResearchGuy said:

FWIW, I edited a fiction anthology that had a lot of dialect (very well done, I thought). I made sure that the usage throughout was "alright" because the more informal tone was appropriate for the dialogue. (Others might disagree, I grant you.) Had the characters been, say, well-educated middle-class suburbanites, then "alright" would not have worked.

--Ken

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I find it interesting that the class of speaker makes a difference to the spelling of the word. Suppose you had a well-educated middle-class suburbanite having a discussion with a highschool dropout? Would one say "all right" and the other "alright"?

Sandi LeFaucheur said:

I find it interesting that the class of speaker makes a difference to the spelling of the word. Suppose you had a well-educated middle-class suburbanite having a discussion with a highschool dropout? Would one say "all right" and the other "alright"?

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Good question. I'd say you have just provided an argument for always using only the preferred spelling, "all right." But then ... the dropout might say "whatever," rendering the issue moot.

In the case I alluded to, I did not have to face that dilemma. In that particular context, the formal correctness of "all right" seemed to me to draw attention to itself, suggesting a distinctness of enunciation that did not fit--and the characters were of similar background. (The author agreed with my reasoning, by the way.)

Another person editing the dialogue might well have made the other choice: "all right." Who knows ... if I revisit the manuscript, I might reconsider the choice.

--Ken

ResearchGuy said:

Personally, I am not at all sure why "alright" should be any less acceptible than "already."

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Well, "already" doesn't mean "all ready." That's the difference I see. But I may be alwrong.

Count me among those who disagree with using the spelling "alright" because a less educated character would say it that way. Everyone says it the same way. One doesn't insert misspellings in dialogue just because the character speaking is a poor speller. (We don't usually know how well a character spells.) For a dyslexic speaker, one doesn't transpose letters in words.

It's a rock'n'roll argument!

ResearchGuy said:

Personally, I am not at all sure why "alright" should be any less acceptible than "already." But it is.



--Ken

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For the same reason that "alryght" is less acceptable. "Alright" may be "accepted" as a non-standard word, but it isn't a word. "Non-standard" means "This isn't a word, but semi-literate people think it is, so we're including it."

And ask yourself this. How in God's name does anyone know which you're saying? They're pronounced the same way. When two spellings are pronounced the same way, the rule is to use the correct spelling.

It might be fine to have a character write "alright" to show his lack of education, but in dialogue the sound is the same, and it shows the writer's ignorance, rather than the character's.

Most editors will simply insert the correct spelling, but it is one of those things that can make an editor drink a healthy shot of Maalox, follow that with an unhealthy shot of whiskey, and call it a day.

I once saw in submission guidelines that if they saw "alright" in your ms, they would stop reading.

See yesterday's (7/2/06) NYTimes Magazine

The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, July 2, 2006, has a one-page article on alright vs all right, focusing on use of "alright" in song lyrics.

Read the article. There is too much detail to repeat here.

However, among the important points is that "alright" is becoming a word in its own right:

--to mean superb, outstanding, excellent
--to serve as an intensifier ("he was angry, alright")
--to serve as an attention-getter ("Alright, hands on top of your heads!"), roughly equivalent to "Hey!"

"Alright" has been explicitly distinguished in some lyrics from "all right," the latter having a meaning closer to "ok."

In any event, it would seem odd and arbitrary for someone to stop reading a manuscript on encountering "alright" without examining and considering the context (or, for that matter, considering it a routine copyediting question).

--Ken

reph said:

Well, "already" doesn't mean "all ready." That's the difference I see. But I may be alwrong....

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By the same token, "all right" does not usually mean "all [is] right." It more often means "ok," "acceptable," or is simply an interjection. "All right, let's get moving now."

Some will find this of interest, from the usage note to "all right" in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:

"All right, usually pronounced as if it were a single word, probably should have followed the same orthographic development as already and altogether. But despite its use by a number of reputable authors, the spelling alright has never been accepted as a standard variant, and the writer who chooses to risk that spelling had best be confident that readers will acknowledge it as a token of willful unconventionality rather than as a mark of ignorance."

The NY Times Magazine article I alluded to before suggests that alright is moving toward acceptance as a distinct word. (Recall that usage expert Bryan Garner observed that "alright" may be becoming accepted in British English.)

I wonder whether eventually "all right" will draw a distinction from "alright" comparable to the distinction now drawn between "all together" and "altogether" (see entry in American Heritage Dictionary). One might likewise note the difference between "all ready" and "already."

--Ken

poetinahat said:

It's a rock'n'roll argument!

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No they're not. Half of 'em are dead.

caw.

reph said:

Count me among those who disagree with using the spelling "alright" because a less educated character would say it that way. Everyone says it the same way. One doesn't insert misspellings in dialogue just because the character speaking is a poor speller. (We don't usually know how well a character spells.)

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That's an excellent point, Reph, and one which I hadn't considered in a previous reply. Based on your observation, it really doesn't make any sense at all to use "alright," even in dialogue.

I love the Grammar Forum. It's such a valuable resource. Our language is complicated, and we're fortunate to have a place where its mysteries are unraveled by members who offer thoughtful illustrations anyone can understand.

Alright, already ...

This is interesting--or perhaps just more fuel on the fire:

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990604

Worth reading.

--Ken

My two cents: I always heard you never use alright because you would never use alwrong.

Shadow_Ferret said:

My two cents: I always heard you never use alright because you would never use alwrong.

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By that token, you would not use already because you would never use alunready, and you would not use altogether (which is derived from all + together) because you would never use alapart.

--Ken

Alright is eeevill, hideous and aberrant.

I don't like it. Neither does the Blessed American Heritage Dictionary:

USAGE NOTE: Despite the appearance of the form alright in works of such well-known writers as Langston Hughes and James Joyce, the single word spelling has never been accepted as standard. This is peculiar, since similar fusions such as already and altogether have never raised any objections. The difference may lie in the fact that already and altogether became single words back in the Middle Ages, whereas alright has only been around for a little more than a century and was called out by language critics as a misspelling. Consequently, one who uses alright, especially in formal writing, runs the risk that readers may view it as an error or as the willful breaking of convention.

And my other objection is one that only another medievalist would care about:

In Middle English alright/alriht is an adverb and means "just, exactly." It is distinct from all right or allright.

Don't make me quote Fowler . . .

Aaron Britt wrote an awesome column (subbing for William Safire) on the usage of "alright" in the NYT magazine this last Sunday (7/2/06). As he describes it, "alright" carries a completely different connotation than "all right," and its grammatically acceptable usage is pretty much confined to rock'n'roll songs.

mkcbunny said:

...What's the current consensus on this issue?

Thanks

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Bottom line: there is no consensus on the issue.

--Ken