Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article

To: T'wit; Peach

alright

One entry found for alright.
Main Entry: al·right
Pronunciation: (")ol-'rIt, 'ol-"
Function: adverb or adjective
: ALL RIGHT
usage The one-word spelling alright appeared some 75 years after all right itself had reappeared from a 400-year-long absence. Since the early 20th century some critics have insisted alright is wrong, but it has its defenders and its users. It is less frequent than all right but remains in common use especially in journalistic and business publications. It is quite common in fictional dialogue, and is used occasionally in other writing <the first two years of medical school were alright -- Gertrude Stein>.
1,236 posted on 09/11/2006 1:38:02 PM PDT by Howlin (Who in the press will stick up for ABC's right to air this miniseries? ~~NRO)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1233 | View Replies ]


To: T'wit
All professors would count 'alright' wrong on any kind of paper. But you knew it was coming....digging deep, and deeper...how low will they go? Wonder how long they dug for that?

LOL! It is comical, isn't it?

1,238 posted on 09/11/2006 1:49:40 PM PDT by yellowdoghunter (Vote out the RINO's. Volunteer to help get Conservatives elected!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1236 | View Replies ]

To: Howlin
business publications

I used the word in all my briefs as a commercial investment analyst and the usage is so common that I'm rather stunned we still have freepers who don't think it's a real word. LOL. Thanks for setting them straight.

1,239 posted on 09/11/2006 1:49:50 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they captured or killed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1236 | View Replies ]

To: Howlin
"alright - all right; a form commonly used but not recognized by authorities as in good use." -- Meriam-Webster New International unabridged, second edition, the best dictionary of American English ever published.

Would you like to try "alrong" this time?

1,270 posted on 09/11/2006 4:15:48 PM PDT by T'wit (It is not possible to "go too far" criticizing liberals. No matter what you say, they're worse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1236 | View Replies ]

To: Howlin; Peach
The two standard guides to English usage, Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, and Fowler, Modern English Usage, also support my point. Neither allows "alright." Strunk and White don't even list the misspelled version. Fowler dismisses it as a "confusion."

Strunk and White say, "Properly written as two words -- all right."

They also note that the phrase itself, even spelled correctly, is "idiomatic" in the sense in which it was used above. Thus, that usage was non-standard and unacceptable for formal writing (as well as misspelled).

Fowler: "all right. The words should always be written separate; there are no such forms as all-right, allright, or alright... "

1,302 posted on 09/11/2006 10:38:17 PM PDT by T'wit (It is not possible to "go too far" criticizing liberals. No matter what you say, they're worse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1236 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson