All right vs Alright

[Astro Pen]

I tend to use All right at the beginning of sentences and alright in mid line. That is about habit and flow.
But 'all right' and 'alright' definitely do not mean quite the same thing. They are not 100% interchangeable.

"All right, that's the way it is then."
"You alright Dave?"

Then of course there is "alrighty". I'm not sure how that one works across the atlantic I only use it in particular situations like a member of a group heading into a confrontation.

Unfortunately we British have to factor in the luggage that Michael Barrymore has added.

 

[.matthew.]

'Alright' is also a single word answer equivalent to 'fine' or an affirmative so I can be used at the start of a sentence in response to a question or statement.

"You getting on okay, Dave?"
"Alright, you know how it goes."

"Just get it done, yea?"
"Alright."

 

[-K2-]

'Alright' is also a single word answer equivalent to 'fine' or an affirmative so I can be used at the start of a sentence in response to a question or statement.
"You getting on okay, Dave?"
"Alright, you know how it goes."
"Just get it done, yea?"
"Alright."

Pretty much what I also know to be the case--as wrong as it may be ( All right vs Alright ). It makes me wonder why certain longstanding, nonstandard words that are so prevalent and widely used, are not added more often as the language grows (as it should), yet obscure words few use and contrastingly vulgar expressions are added on a regular basis?

K2

 

[Ursa major]

Don't forget that even where alright would be fine (a judgement that will vary from person to person), all right might be used in order to indicate how it's "said" (in dialogue, free independent speech or even direct thoughts).

Think of the difference in the effect of "can't", "cannot" and "can not" (and so on) in:

• "You can't be serious."
• "You cannot be serious."
• "You can not be serious."
• "You Can Not be serious."
• "You. Can. Not. be serious."

 

[.matthew.]

Think of the difference in the effect of "can't", "cannot" and "can not" (and so on) in:

Well, not really. Those are contractions of the same word with the same meaning (albeit with emphasis and whatnot).

All right, and alright mean entirely different things. There is no relation between them in meaning.
All right means that something is all correct (or I suppose possibly when giving directions), while alright is a synonym for fine, in the same way fine is one for okay. It means satisfactory, nothing to do with something being correct.

Edit: to give Astro's example again, Alrighty would be the variation of alright that is most like your example.

 

[Ursa major]

I didn't mention "meaning"; I wrote "effect", i.e. the "emphasis and whatnot"...

...and those effects can be used for all sorts of things, including (to pick an example at random) sarcasm: "Then that's all right," which is a sarcastic (and emphasised) way of saying, "That's not alright"... which is also: "That's not fine."

 

[.matthew.]

Don't forget that even where alright would be fine, all right might be used in order to indicate how it's "said"

I'd still use alright there, or possibly alrighty. The words 'all' and 'right' next to each other convey a different meaning than 'alright'. You could also use alternate words like 'okay' or 'hunky-dory' etc.

"Then that's alright," is more appropriate even when being sarcastic because you're not saying "it's not all right" you're saying "it's not fine."

 

[Ursa major]

But you're also missing the point I made about how words are spoken.

"Then that's alright" is not spoken in the same way as "Then that's all right." (The second version suggests that both "all" and "right" may be being stressed, whereas the stress in the word "alright" tends to be only on the second syllable.)

As for confusing alright and all right: the context should also be given the reading a clue to what it's about (either told or shown; either in the attitude of the speaker or the reaction of the person at which the sentence is aimed).

 

[.matthew.]

I think most people are wary of forcing accents, dialects, and other differences of speech into a story though. Mostly the words the characters use are the right ones, with a tag on to describe how it's said if necessary. Of course too many ',he said sarcastically' would be horrible as well, but it is more understandable. Personally I'd try to find a better way of saying it than 'all right' because while it may 'sound' like it's dragging the word out, it's written as two separate words. If you were going the spoken route, you'd use a single elongated word to convey that meaning even if it's not correctly spelled as that is clearer than splitting into two words that have their own meaning. You could also potentially use italics but I'm unsure on that point "Then that's alright."

Edit: You could also use an infixation, like 'albloodyright' though in this specific word case I'm not a fan, but it would denote something.

To the confusing point you're right that context should be there, in which case 'alright' would be dripping with sarcasm, so 'all right' doesn't need to be used there. You also need to consider many especially non native speakers who learnt only the correct grammar etc, would struggle to pick up on the sarcasm of 'all right' as it's two words they have learnt and understand to mean something different. If they aren't sure about alright they'd look it up and understand easily that it means 'fine' or 'okay' and that in the context of that sarcasm it means they are not.

 

[Astro Pen]

Agree with Ursa on stressing
An example I use a lot is to read this line four times with the stress on the bold word.
Useful exercise to think about emphasis when rehearsing before reading a piece to a group

What do you want?
What do you want?
What do you want?
What do you want?

 

[JNG01]

I go with what looks like the consensus here--"alright' for dialog and "all right" elsewhere.

 

[Extollager]

I think "alright" was another of those errors that I used to correct on my students' papers but not subtract points for, like "ok" for "okay" or "OK."

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

If you're writing for the US market, though, just go with "all right" for everything, in both narration and dialogue, unless you're trying to indicate a specific accent or speech pattern.

 

[Ambrose]

It does seem to be another discrepancy between US and UK practice.

 

[Rufus Coppertop]

Yes, "alright" seems to be more of a UK thing.

It's orright in Australia too.