Monday, September 9, 2013

FEELIN' ALL RIGHT

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,


Today your Queen of Grammar must take Her Loyal Subjects to task for the use of "alright" in place of "all right".

Although the dismaying sight of "alright" is increasing, it's not a word. It's one of those non-words that will probably become acceptable in the future because it's used so commonly. But for now, We (and I do mean the Royal We) are not all right with alright.

I beg of you: Ban alright from your writing. I don't care if spell check accepts it. It's not correct. It's a misspelling of all right.

Shockingly, Webster's Third New International Dictionary claims that alright is correct usage, but all right is more common. Your Queen heartily disagrees.

We are not alright in this Queendom. We are all right.

To help you recover from the sting of being chastised, I offer a cartoon sent to me by The Great and Powerful fishducky.



Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug

Saving the world from bad grammar, one word at a time.

30 comments:

  1. "Alright," Janie, it is "all right." OK and okay? Alot and a lot? Editing, editing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't have recollection WHAT I tend to use. But you can be sure that now, I will be aware of it. And I will always thing back to you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. All righty, then.

    Guilty as charged.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like all righty. I used to work with a receptionist who was vicious, but when she would say, Well, all righty then, we knew she was calm and less likely to kill.

      Delete
  4. I tried to do my bit for the grammar police by writing a recent post on the misuse of "decimate." I faced stiff resistance, as I'm sure you will also.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked the decimate post. It made me ridiculously happy.

      Delete
  5. While you are at it, why don't you give "alot" a good working over?

    ReplyDelete
  6. You know I'M all over this post. (Insert curtsy to the Q of G here.)

    -andi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your curtsy is quite nice. I'm waving to you in the royal manner.

      Delete
  7. I had no idea alright was not an actual word. I'm still going to use it though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Be my guest, Herr Van Helsing. I'll continue to smile upon you.

      Delete
  8. Of course. That's because you're brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Alright bugs me, too, but I'm okay with OK!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used to use OK, but then I became more ediecated.

      Delete
  10. All right! I will never write alright again :)

    New follower. All the best.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great post, but I'll likely still use grammar incorrectly. It's how I talk, and therefore how I write. Because the Lord knows, if I don't get it down quickly, there's no way I'll remember it by morning. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't see anything wrong with writing the way that you talk. I love the conversational nature of your blog, and your grammar is fine. I don't feel distracted by errors when I read your writing.

      Delete
  12. Right! I understand; !t is not all right to use alright.

    Blessings and Bear hugs!

    ReplyDelete
  13. All right I get it alright is not a word, I never thought it was but yeah I have used it at times because as you said the spell checker doesn't pick up the mistake.........

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm not sure I use that word very often at all, but I'll try to remember. In my world most punctuation has been replaced by dashes. I'm too old to change now. Punctuation spoils the rhythm of my thoughts--LOL! ;) ;)

    ReplyDelete

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