Robert L. Hunt

I have been asked this very question recently.

The use of “all right” or the inability to see that there is anything wrong with “alright” reveals one’s background, upbringing and education, perhaps as much as any word in the English language. I constantly see “alright” in subtitles on the Hong Kong screen.

The earliest use of “alright” was first recorded according to the Oxford dictionary in 1893 from a Durham University journal “I think I shall pass alright.” This is the demotic form.

There was a marked increase last century in the writing down of the semi-phonetic version (especially unstressed) elements in the language which is known as “demotic English.” For example, “shoulda,” “thoughta,” where “a” represents “to,” “have” and “of.” Other examples are “innit,” (= isn’t it) ,“wanna” (= want to), and “doncha” (= don’t you), etc.

Alright is preferred in popular magazines and journals, and especially by popular singers. But the word is hardly ever used by writers of standing, though you do see the occasional “You’ll be alright love,” and “They do live there alright.”

Alright is commonplace in private correspondence, especially in that of the moderately educated young.

Almost all other printed works in Britain and abroad use the more traditional form all right, as an adjective and as an adverb. A very common sentence from a novel: “Oh, all right,” she said, “Go.” This is all right being used as an adverb. We could use all right as a predicative adjective, e.g. in writing about going somewhere: “Guangzhou was all right.” After a doctor has examined a patient. “You seem to be all right.” A very common remark that I have seen in American newspapers: “I wouldn’t want anybody to think that everything is all right.”

There is also the use of all right as an attributive adjective: (from the New Yorker) “There is a painting or two hanging in an all right place.” But most novelists and short story writers now make use of demotic English in their writing, but seldom in any systematic way.