Re: USAGE : English past tense and participle in -et

On Sat, Dec 27, 2003 at 09:50:52PM -0500, Tristan McLeay wrote:
> I wouldn't've thought so. 'Alright' can't be separated, and it's
> pronounced differently (silent l) from how 'all right' would be (IMD). The
> only legitimate argument against it is that there's an argument against
> it.
"Alright" is an alternate spelling for SOME OF THE MEANINGS of "all right".
They are pronounced identically, although "all right" has other meanings,
and may be pronounced differently in some of them (e.g. emphasis on the
second syllable instead of the first).  The dropping of the [l] (and
even of the [r], as in the recent development "a'ight") can occur with
either spelling.

> Is 'all right' in the dictionary separately then? Because 'alright'
> doesn't mean 'everything is correct', but 'okay'.
See above.  The spelling "alright" is a contraction of "all right", but
is only used for certain meanings.  The phrase "all right" can also be,
for instance, an exam result ("He got them all right"), and "alright"
can't be substituted there.

-Mark