Is Alright Ever All Right?

Virginia Bouchard, Lingistics Teaching Assistant (vbouchar@gmu.edu)

There is no definitive rule of grammar that can be applied consistently to explain why some double-words have single-word alternatives and others do not.

There is, however, a rule of style that’s often applied in academic writing: Thou shalt not create new words out of perfectly good old words! The following table shows commonly used word pairs and their compounded forms, with the consensus on their proper use.

Why is it, one might ask, that “a lot” and “all right” have no acceptable combined form despite other examples (all ready/already) having combined forms that signal differences in use and meaning? Let’s look at the details.

The differences between “all right” and “alright” are consistent with other word pairs. They represent different meanings and have different grammatical functions: “You got them all right” means everything was correct, and “You got them alright” means you received them “for sure.” They have consistent stress patterns: “all right” has roughly equal stress (all’ right’), and “alright” has the uneven stress expected of a multi-syllable word (al×right’). These differences are equally consistent with “a lot,” “already,” “everyday,” “altogether,” “anyone,” and so on. There seems to be no sound reason for the ruling against “alot” and “alright.” Maybe it’s time for a change.