all right

In a previous post I talked about how “alright” is overused. But “alright” is becoming more accepted, and it’s necessary in more cases than I thought.

I said that you could write, “The weather is all right today.” You could argue that that actually means the weather is totally good or “correct,” rather than simply okay. “The weather is alright,” on the other hand, means the weather is okay.

This change in meaning is highlighted in, “The numbers are all right,” as opposed to, “The numbers are alright.” The first means that all the numbers are correct; the second means that the numbers are acceptable.

So go ahead. But I won’t be too quick to follow, alright?

Pretty much every time you use “alright”, “all right” can be substituted in its place. It’s just as understandable, but it looks much better.

The only times you need to use “alright” are when you use it as an adjective before a noun, as in, “We’re having alright weather today.” (Note that you can still write, “The weather is all right today.”)