It's all right vs. it's alright

[nancylebov]

Which do you prefer? Why? How much do you care?

Update Looks like we've got a strong consensus, so I've changed that slogan and three other older slogans to "all right".

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

alright looks wrong because it was "wrong" all through my school years. So it frets at me, though I know that rule has changed. But when I read it I get blipped out of the story for just a moment, so yes i do care. "All right" is invisible to me.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

It is also true for me that I had it so drilled into me that "alright" was alwrong wrong. So it stops me when I encounter it, but I see no logical reason to oppose it.

[doomspark.livejournal.com]

I grew up with "all right", and that's what I use. "Alright" will jolt me right out of whatever I'm reading. It looks and feels wrong to me. It gives me the impression of carelessness and over-familiarity.

But, as always, your mileage may vary.

I despise "alright"

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

Even though the new lexicographical order has accepted it, I flinch whenever I see it.

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

You filthy "Right"ists! Why can you give the other side a chance!

Why not "It's all Left", or "It's alleft"?!?!?!?!

fnord

ttyl

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I think alright is alwrong but I care notmuch

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

They aitn't no sech word as "alright."

[crystalpyramid]

I'm pretty sure I've been taught both. When I was quite young, I was taught that there was no such word as "alright". Later someone told me that "all right" means "entirely correct" only, while "alright" means "okay". The latter stuck with me, though I don't have a strong opinion either way.

[twistedchick]

"All right" is written grammatical English. "Alright" is colloquial spoken English. I use the latter one only when writing dialogue in fiction.

[redbird]

Thank you.

Like several other people, I have a strong twitch reaction to "alright". Spelling isn't rational, it's partly a pattern recognition thing where early learning is more powerful than any number of people telling me that thus-and-such is okay now. Yesterday, cattitude and I were discussing whether/how soon "todo" as a closed-up form of "to do" (e.g., "to do list") was likely to become acceptable English, and I realized that even if it did, it would probably always seem wrong to me in that sense, because it reads as Spanish ("todo" is Spanish for "all" or "every" and is common on signs and ads). But that may not stop people: I recently saw a package with some kind of light and a label that said "LED $brandname DEL," and it took me three tries to figure out that "DEL" is the acronym for the Spanish for light-emitting diode, because the first things that came up were "delete" and "of the" (the latter being Spanish--right language, wrong meaning).

[madfilkentist]

I think "alright" is a nonstandard, mostly British usage. "All right" is standard in both the US and the UK.