A few grammatical questions.

Hey everyone.

When you're typing the word "Okay" do you use "okay" or "OK"? Also when I type, "Alright" into my word processor, OpenOffice it doesn't class it as being a spelling error, but when I typed it into my browser just now, it did. Do I use it? Or is it not a word and I should use something else?

Thanks, hawky94

 

I personally use 'okay' in my writing, as I think OK looks a bit garish for some reason. 'Alright' isn't actually a word; it's supposed to be two words: 'all right'. It's one of the most commonly mis-spelled words in the English language.

 

"Alright" is a common misspelling of "all right." However, according to dictionary.com, "The form alright as a one-word spelling of the phrase all right in all of its senses probably arose by analogy with such words as already and altogether. Although alright is a common spelling in written dialogue and in other types of informal writing, all right is used in more formal, edited writing."

For the other, I personally use "okay" in most cases. Wikipedia has quite a lengthy article on how this word developed, and in most all cases, it appears O.K. or OK preceded okay. In the question of which to use though, I would just say to pick one and remain consistent with its use.

 

Concerning Alright this is what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say:
Although all right can also be spelled alright, you should use all right in formal writing. I tend to use Alright in dialogue and thought - All right in anything else. I suspect in the future Alright will become the correct term its in the process of changing.

I personally use OK - to me okay plain looks weird. However again the OED says both are OK to use

 

So. "Everything is going to be okay" Said the nurse with a look of doubt on her face.
Or. "Everything is going to be alright" Said the nurse with a look of doubt on her face.

 

Both would be fine.

Or maybe

'Everything will be fine,' says the Nurse.

 

I use okay and all right.

 

"OK" and "okay" are both acceptable.

I avoid using "alright." I know that some dictionaries now include it, but it seems to me that it's still generally recognized as an error.

 

I'd correct spelling and punctuation to make those:

"Everything is going to be okay," said the nurse with a look of doubt on her face.
"Everything is going to be all right," said the nurse with a look of doubt on her face.

In another forum, there was a long, _long_ debate about whether "alright" and "all right" are pronounced differently. I feel that if they are, then "alright" could be acceptable in dialogue just as any other slang word is, but I don't hear them as different, so to me it's not acceptable.

 

Interesting. I use "Okay" (or okay) consistently, because I fear people may not understand OK (they may say "ock" in their heads. Probably I underestimate the reader, but "okay" cannot be misunderstood, and takes the least possible energy from the reader as he doesn't have to decipher it first - that's what matters to me most.

 

If you are going to use phonetics - the Okay is still OcKay I guess if you are thinking that way O.K. would work better

It is very, very unlikely a native English speaker would pronounce OK - ock - even here in Scotland.

Okay may be acceptable but it is no more phonetically correct than OK, it is much more recent than O.K. To my eyes it just looks weird. It feels like a unnecessary attempt to write posh.

 

Thanks. I will rethink it. Maybe I worry too much about people who have ESL like myself.

 

whatever you use, just be consistent... if an editor doesn't like something, you'll be asked to change it, or it will be changed for you, to fit their house style...