All right vs. alright?

[Timber Loftis]

If you like efficiency, it's odor, color, and humor. If you prefer to anglo-cize your words garnered from other cultures, it's theater and center. Of course, in the USA if you see it spelled odour, colour, humour, theatre, or centre, then you can bet your arse it's more expensive because it's "mas fina."

[Brayf]

An American saying "arse"?! Did you type that in a faux-cockney accent, by any chance?

[ 09-21-2005, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: Brayf ]

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by Brayf: An American saying "arse"?! Did you type that in a faux-cockney accent, by any chance?

Naw, had I wanted to go all cockney, I'd have called it bottle, khyber or april.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Originally posted by Brayf: quote: Originally posted by Sever: a lot and alot.

Alot is definitely not a word, no matter what! [/QUOTE]Every time I read "alot" I die a little inside...

[Sever]

Alot. It makes me cringe too. But it won't be long before it's a word. It would have to be the most used 'non word' i've come across. Right up there with confliction.

[Callum]

Really? People use alot? Interesting.

And I'd just like to point out that the plural of y'all isn't y'all. Y'all isn't singular in the first place...

[Larry_OHF]

Originally posted by Illumina Drathiran'ar: quote: Originally posted by Brayf: quote: Originally posted by Sever: a lot and alot.

Alot is definitely not a word, no matter what! [/QUOTE]Every time I read "alot" I die a little inside... [/QUOTE]Then what would you do if I wrote out the sentence,

"Alotta times, I can be found at the computer."

Alotta = 'A lot of the'

I like what Timber Loftis said. Nobody can restrict a language, though the Real Acadamia de Espanol in Spain certainly tries to. I think they are the only agency in the world that tells their people how they shoud be speaking, though it seems that the only people that care about their rules are Castillians in Spain. I have never heard any of my Hispanic friends vocalize any care for them.

Language grows and changes to fit the culture and needs of those using it.

Its a tool for expression...to get an idea across. Don't we live by enough restrictive rules in life without having to worry about this?

By the way...those of you who HAVE to obey every rule there is for perfect spelling and speaking of every word, such as "a lot"...have you ever, ever, ever gone even one mile over the speed limit in your vehicle from what's posted? If you do, then you are a rule breaker. Its more important to obey speed limits than it is to obey limits on language and grammar.

[Larry_OHF]

Some explanation on the above word "alotta"...language is spoken with a fluidness that combines words together in a sentence with a tendency to make them sound like one word. English is not the only language to do this. In fact, that is why most people have trouble picking up what somebody is saying in another language even if they have studied the vocabulary sufficiently to understand what each word was being said. But native speakers have short-cuts that do not impede the speaker from getting his point across to another native speaker of the same language. It is a tool to be used in poetry, where vowel sounds sometimes have to be combined and not seperated to get the right count of syllables. In everyday speaking, a person chooses to say,

Whatcha want? = What do you...?
Can I have another'n = another one.
Wanna go with me? = Do you want to...


Therefore, what is happening is that people who use these language short-cuts are deciding that if they can speak that way, then they can write it that way. Thus, they spell out the words phonetically if there were ever a reason for doing so, mostly to show the "casual tone" of the conversation in written format. That casual tone is the key to the language discrepencies.

For words like alot...well...people use that word as one word...so it gets written as one word. Alot.


By the way...As I have mentioned before, how are we to learn what is considered right in the rest of the world if our own educators are teaching us "alot" in the schools we attend? Thus, we speak with the education we are taught with...whether in the classroom or on the street.

[Bungleau]

Originally posted by Callum: Really? People use alot? Interesting. And I'd just like to point out that the plural of y'all isn't y'all. Y'all isn't singular in the first place...

The plural of "Y'all" is "all y'all"....

[Callum]

All you all?

Ah. Well now I know