Both are correct?

Wy, There was a time when I thought it would never happen. Alot?! Gimme a break. Now I'm not so sure.

x
I was brought up to think alright was ignorant/uneducated or - American. My kids think it's normal - sic transit verbae mundi.
How do you feel about More useful everyday instead of every day?

I spent 15 yrs of my life teaching Chinese students NOT to use it unless as an adjective (an everyday story) but now MSN has it!

Another pet hate (for Christmas - all this goodwill is getting to me) is barbeque, which of course would be pronounced bar-beek. Can't people realise that BarBQ is a cute rendition of a correct pronunciation, but that the Q stands for cue?????!!!!!

Ah, bliss to know, proper English is alive and well and living in Totnes.

Which is a really nice place, I've been there once. Medieval (can I write mediaeval?) town largely unspoilt, the time I saw it.

I agree with Clary about every day and everyday. "I have an everyday sweater. I wear it every day." I have tried to explain the difference to people, but they don't seem to understand. Sometimes I tell them "if you could substitute "each" for "every", it's two words... "I have an eachday sweater" doesn't work, but "I wear it each day" does.

Sometimes it helps, sometimes it don't... Another pair that's getting like that is anyway... "Fix it anyway you can" -- yuk.

I think Bar-B-Q is more than cutesy. It echoes the Old West and cattle brands, when cows were branded with the name of the ranch they belonged to. The branding irons had to be fairly simple shapes, both so they could be shaped easily from iron, and so they would be distinct. So a lot of ranches took their names from the brand they chose (sounds backwards, doesn't it?). Lazy J would be represented as a J on its side, Bar S would be a straight line (a bar) and an S, and so on... So Bar-B-Q gives Americans, at least, a mental picture of the Wild West, outdoors, cowboys, the whole romantic picture...

By the way -

Cos is a variety of lettuce.

Hey McTag, you're welcome to revisit to our haven of perfect English in mediaeval (of course) Totnes any time of the day - everyday in fact.

I like the Wild Westiness of Bar-B-Q, hadn't thought of the subtext there. But it doesn't excuse barbeque, does it?

Apparently there's a new book out about pronunciation with the ambiguous title 'Eats shoots and leaves' which can be decorated with commas to change it from panda description to normal male behaviour in a McD's in some sleazy suburb of our favourite most powerful nation.

Hey I was given that very book for Christmas and I read the first 20 pages last night before falling into the deep sleep of the just.

Just had too much Xmas cheer, I mean.

Well there you go!

Apart from falling asleep over it, would you recommend it?

Yes quite good, a woman after my own heart.
She 'puts herself down' a bit at the beginning, unnecessarily so I thought, and she over-dramatises her reactions to bad grammar for comic effect, but overall, a creditable effort. I agree with what she says so far, and I shall certainly read it with interest to the end.

The thing is, is it one of those books that you feel you could have written? I don't like them, they tell me too much that I know already. Sounds pretentious of me, but I'm sure you know what I mean. Bill Bryson's book on the English language had that quality - although there were many things I didn't know of course. And since I write dictionaries and textbooks for a living, I feel I should have written them. I edit out the fact that I'm too lazy!

Whereabouts in the NW are you?

Clary, I know what you mean, but I disagree slightly. In my reaction to that kind of book, I mean. I agree there aren't too many surprises, but I suppose I don't mind having my predudices reinforced. And, it's quite comical.

The author (Lynne Truss? can't quite remember) cites several other books of similar type in her Introduction and it might be worthwhile for me, tracking them down. I quite like that kind of thing. Although a 'rude mechanical', I am fascinated by words and enjoy programmes like 'Word of Mouth', and writings by folk like Dot Wordsworth and that chap who lived in Liverpool, what's his name, Fritz Spiegel.

We are in Stockport, Cheshire- just to the south of Manchester.

Is Stockport as wet windy and generally ghastly as Totters is today?!
What sort of rude mechanical? How I envy people with skills, manual skills ranging from cooking to painting to needlework to carpentry to DIY. We are a cack-handed family (and I'm sure you know the origin of that phrase!), all Fire and Air signs, no Earth. Even now my 3 sons are talking instead of packing and yet we leave for London in 30 minutes. Ah me!

(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
Definition
alright
adjective, adverb, exclamation
all right


Microsoft Encarta:

al·right

adverb

satisfactory: generally good, satisfactory, or pleasing ( informal )

adjective

pleasant: generally good, satisfactory, or pleasant ( informal )


http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861584910/alright.html

Stop it, OristarA, you're breaking my heart. This is a sign of the beginning of the end of the world.

(at least Cambridge says "alright" means "all right". And Encarta is American, say no more )

Clary won't be able to read this from London, I don't suppose. But our weather is wet & windy here too.
I will PM her with the rest.

Please, no one else submit a post with the word "alright" in it. It is bad for my constitution. Have some consideration, please.

Oh, c'mon. You'll like this one... my Revised Oxford's has the word listed, then says, it is "widely used and incorrect." Doesn't that make you feel better?

Yes, Piff, really, I almost mean it.

And thanks to you and the Revised Oxford, I do feel a lot better.

McT I have just seen that Stockport is 12th in the book of Crap Towns....

Alright for British speakers,as you can see, is regarded as substandard, requiring a cross reference to all right
BTW, I have worked with, been fairly intimate with, the lexicographer in charge of the Advanced Learners, for Cambridge. It's time you realised that dictionaries are written by ordinary people like ME so quoting them is not going to cut much ice with the likes of I!

If "queue", as in "I stood in the queue for an hour" should be pronounced "cue" then I think it's clear -- barbecue could be spelled "barbequeue"... that's too much for us mere Americans. I'll stick to BBQ. Or go Ozzie and throw the shrimps on the barbie. Which, being a plastic doll, would do the poor shrimps no good at all...

I'm so confused.