It's not alright, Mom!

Post date: Dec 24, 2011 6:14:10 PM

There's nothing worse than having your correct spelling be corrected by an autobot. It happens all the time with me when I'm in Microsoft Word. But today, I was Googling a question with the words, "all right." Google kept telling me it was changing it to "alright." No, it is not alright—even if this means that the bulk of people Googling have decided to merge "all" and "right" into two words. It reminds me of how I initially learned to spell "alot" as one word because that's how my first grade teacher spelled it on the board. I was surprised to find out a few years later--when I had become very good friends with my dictionary—that my first grade teacher had been wrong.

Now, as an editor, I know that there's a big possibility that if enough people misspell a word, that misspelling will become an accepted spelling. That's how words change.

But as far as I know—and as far as my dictionary tells me—"alright" is not the preferred spelling yet.