OK, y’all have seen it here. You know what I do. All the time. But I’m thinking I’ll prolly change my ways sometime in the near future. Or not, I don’t know. I never thought about it before now.
By today’s NaNoWriMo count, in my 35k+ words, I don’t doubt I’ve cheated with all kinds of shortenings. Wonder how the WORD word counter counts words? Is OK a word in the counter? Or does the counter work like typing tests in the days of old, where five characters were taken to be the average number of characters in a word of the words typed? Oddly enough. Or maybe not so oddly, when I copied and pasted (what I laughingly call) the text of (another snort) my novel into their counter, their counter counted twenty-some fewer words than my counter counted in WORD.
I’ve got a story I really want to tell
About Bo Diddley at the O.K. Corral
Now Bo Diddley didn’t stand no mess
He wore a gun on his hip and a rose on his chest
I guess we could start setting “all right” as A.R. Or spell it out as “owlryt.”
Speaking of which: “all right” is still properly set as two words, but I am growing ever more weary of marking it. I wonder why “already” is accepted but “alright” isn’t?
Let’s ask Cindy: Cindy (I’m sitting with her at this moment), is “all right” set as one word or as two? Cindy: “It’s two words. I thought you knew that.”
Yes, I too dislike the word “properly,” and am immediately ashamed of myself if I succumb to its use.
Your dissent has given me pause, though, whilst sending my paws through various sources to check myself (me being a great skeptic of any proclaimed certainty). And in such places as The Concise Wadsworth Handbook (most recent edition) I found: “Although the use of alright is increasing, current usage calls for all right.” I found other similar views, though some specified that it is mostly just not right for formal writing.
I know, you’ll always have that. I’ve been feeling intimate about ‘alright’ all my life, and you know, I’m fond of it. There isn’t a context, formal or otherwise, in which I will not call ‘alright’ a friend. You see? You have given me paws also.
But how do you prefer to spell it? I have an inexplicable aversion to “OK,” always write it “okay.” The former looks too informal to me, and ugly.
I think also, they’re pronounced differently in my head. The ay sound is ever so slightly longer in “okay,” more like how one actually says it.
we are in accord.
I’m with India on this too: I always spell it out as–okay.
One of my school teachers banned the word because it was not a word. Which is kind of understandable but then where do you draw the line.
OK, y’all have seen it here. You know what I do. All the time. But I’m thinking I’ll prolly change my ways sometime in the near future. Or not, I don’t know. I never thought about it before now.
By today’s NaNoWriMo count, in my 35k+ words, I don’t doubt I’ve cheated with all kinds of shortenings. Wonder how the WORD word counter counts words? Is OK a word in the counter? Or does the counter work like typing tests in the days of old, where five characters were taken to be the average number of characters in a word of the words typed? Oddly enough. Or maybe not so oddly, when I copied and pasted (what I laughingly call) the text of (another snort) my novel into their counter, their counter counted twenty-some fewer words than my counter counted in WORD.
Word, y’all.
Either ok or okay are ok to me. O.K., however, and I start wondering what the initials stand for.
I’ve got a story I really want to tell
About Bo Diddley at the O.K. Corral
Now Bo Diddley didn’t stand no mess
He wore a gun on his hip and a rose on his chest
(“Bo Diddley’s a Gunslinger” — Bo Diddley)
I guess we could start setting “all right” as A.R. Or spell it out as “owlryt.”
Speaking of which: “all right” is still properly set as two words, but I am growing ever more weary of marking it. I wonder why “already” is accepted but “alright” isn’t?
Whatcha mean, ‘alright’ isn’t?
isn’t, but willitbe?
Is so!
nope
Says who?
Let’s ask Cindy: Cindy (I’m sitting with her at this moment), is “all right” set as one word or as two? Cindy: “It’s two words. I thought you knew that.”
‘S not how we do it round these parts, I’m afraid.
It’s alright it’s alright it’s alright!
I know of many places where things are not properly done
Ah, properly. Yes, I would rather avoid that.
Yes, I too dislike the word “properly,” and am immediately ashamed of myself if I succumb to its use.
Your dissent has given me pause, though, whilst sending my paws through various sources to check myself (me being a great skeptic of any proclaimed certainty). And in such places as The Concise Wadsworth Handbook (most recent edition) I found: “Although the use of alright is increasing, current usage calls for all right.” I found other similar views, though some specified that it is mostly just not right for formal writing.
I know, you’ll always have that. I’ve been feeling intimate about ‘alright’ all my life, and you know, I’m fond of it. There isn’t a context, formal or otherwise, in which I will not call ‘alright’ a friend. You see? You have given me paws also.
That happens alot.
A friend of mine always wanted to get ‘ALRIGHT’ printed on a white mug in bold black letters, “if it’s on a mug,’ he said, “it’s real.”