Aloud/Out Loud

I'm also interested in learning what the distinction is. I've always thought "out loud" was less formal than "aloud." In some cases, the former seems to work better, as in, "For crying out loud!" But there must be some greater feature between the two that I'm not seeing, and look forward to someone solving the mystery for our benefit.

There's some discussion of it here: http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=6696&sid=2faf3b54e44fcd063c5a5779f01068cd

I have questioned this myself and the best I can tell, they are pretty much interchangable.


of course, I could be wrong....

Interesting!

I always understood that out loud and aloud had two distinct usages.

'Aloud' is used when describing someone who vocalises the words as s/he reads. This is usually when the person is sharing a letter, book, newspaper, some sort of written material, with other people.

'Out loud' is making a noise as in: 'They tiptoed from their great aunt's presence silently mouthing cheers; once outside in the garden they whooped out loud.'

Then there is the expression: 'For crying out loud!' which is a polite way of swearing, if I remember rightly it's blasphemous swearing of the Cor Blimey, S'truth, variety.

Just came across Wordmonkey's line in a comment he makes in the novel writing thread. I hope he won't mind me using it.
'I've laughed aloud at some of the lines in these books.'

This is where I would use 'out loud'.

Good Grief!

You mean the experts like Reph and Mediaeval aren't going to jump in and tell me that I'm wrong and proper American usage is...?

You mean you agree?

Hold me up whilst I faint!!!