10 ways to use ALRIGHT & ALL RIGHT

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In today's lesson I'm going to show you ten ways to use the word "alright".

Let's begin with some grammar, because there are difference between British English and

American English in whether you're writing the word "alright".

So, in American English, their preference is to write "all right" as two words.

That's considered more grammatically correct.

In British English, it depends.

Some people say it should always be written as two words, and some people it's now acceptable

to write "alright" as one word.

Personally, I generally write the word as one word.

I write it like this.

And that is because I consider it quite an informal expression, and most of the time

I use it, it feels to me that it has an informal register.

But if you wanted to be really, really certain that you weren't making a grammatical mistake,

if you're writing something formal, then you can spell it two words in British English.

Okay, let's move now to examples of when we use this word: "alright".

What's important to know about this word is it has different meanings, depending on how...

On the tone that we use when we say it.

Let's start with here.

Number one, when we want to reassure someone we can say: "Everything's going to be alright.

Don't worry, everything's going to be alright."

That's also a song.

Do you know it?

"Everything's Gonna Be Alright."

Sorry about my singing, but Bob Marley told us first that everything's going to be alright.

Number two we can use the word "alright" to check: Is something satisfactory?

That means: Is it okay?

I want to check that the thing I want to do is okay.

I can say: "Does this soup taste all right?

I want you to tell me.

Is it delicious?

Does the soup taste all right?"

Perhaps I'm going out for the evening, I'm not sure what to wear, so I try on my dress

and I ask you: "Is my dress alright?

Do you think it's alright for the party?"

Number three, we say the word "all right" when we're asking people about their health.

Perhaps they've not been well lately, so we can say: "Are you all right?"

We can also say that... if this would normally happen if you're walking in the street and

somebody falls over, maybe they slip because the pavement's wet or they have a bicycle

accident, you can say to them: "Are you all right?

Are you all right?"

And when we say it fast, then it all blends into one: "Are you all right?

Are you all right?"

Next we have permission.

If you want to sit down somewhere and you're not sure if somebody's already sitting there,

you can politely say: "Is it alright if I sit here?

Is it alright?"

And they will say: "Yeah, sure.

My next examples are mainly British English examples, and these are informal expressions,

things we would say when we're just chatting in conversation.

So, here I have spelt "alright" as one word every time.

In my previous examples I spelt it two ways to show: Yes, this is possible, and this is

also possible; depends on your preference.

So, number five, in British English in London specifically, but many other areas, especially

in the south of England, we can use "alright" as a greeting, so instead of saying: "Hello.

How are you?" we just say to each other: "Alright?"

And then they say: "Alright."

We don't really put a lot of enthusiasm in it.

So the first "alright" sounds like more of a question.

And it depends, the other one sometimes doesn't sound like a question.

But they might do the question-sounding one back as well.

Then you can also add "mate" or "love"; very, very informal and very familiar kind of language

A lot of people don't like to be called "mate" or "love" if they don't actually know you.

Some people think it's impolite.

So you could say: "Alright, mate?"

Or you could say: "Alright, love?"

Next we've got when you say yes to something but you don't really mean it, you would rather

say no, but you don't feel it's possible.

So imagine your mom says to you: "Go and tidy your room", or: "Can you tidy your room today?"

You'd say: "Alright."

Or you'd say: "Alright."

You're saying yes, you'd rather not do it today, but you don't have a choice.

So it's not like: "Yes!"

It's not enthusiastic.

Number seven is when somebody says something that's a bit random, like it doesn't really

make sense or it's a bit weird, something that's random is hard to describe, but teenagers

find everything random.

"Oh my god, that's so random."

They always think things are weird or a bit embarrassing.

So it's... a teenager would never say this one.

A teenager would never say: "Alrighty, then!"

That comes from an old film called Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and he would use that as a

The English version that we always used to say when I was at school is: "Alright then.

That's so random.

Alright", and you roll your eyes a bit to make it look like: "I don't know what's wrong

with that person.

So I wonder because I was at school when we used to say it like that, and that film was

the same kind of age, I wondered if it came from the same phrase as the film.

Not sure, but yeah, you say that when...

It's not really a comeback, it's just you don't have something witty to say or something

clever, but you're just showing that you think that person is, like, pathetic.

"Alright then."

So it's very teenagery.

Next we have passive aggressive.

Passive aggressive is when you're angry about something, but you're not expressing it in

the most direct way possible.

Imagine you're angry at Steve.

He did something, you thought he was taking liberties with you, you're not happy about

it, but you say to him: "Alright, Steve.

Whatever, mate.

Alright, Steve.

Whatever, mate."

There're more dismissive words in here.

Saying "Whatever" is quite dismissive, and calling someone "mate" when you're angry at

them is another way of...

"Mate", it's another dismissive way.

If you put it all together, obviously it's not alright, the situation.

"All right", the words themselves mean all right, mean good, but if we use them like

this it actually means the opposite, it's not all right now.

But it could mean I don't want to argue with you now, I don't want to make a bigger deal now.

But we could also say the same sentence with a more angry tone, and then it wouldn't be

passive aggressive, it would just be aggressive.

It would be like: "Alright, Steve.

Whatever, mate."

That would be aggressive.

Number nine we can use it as an exclamation.

This would be something like: "Alright!

Let's get going!

Alright, we're done.

And lastly, this one is a British English expression.

When you think somebody's good looking, it can be a woman, it can be a man, when you

think they're good looking, you can say: "He's a bit of alright."

Or you can say: "She's a bit of alright."

So there, there we go.

We have different ways to use "alright" that depend on the tone of voice.

These are all British English expressions that we use in informal situations.

Americans would also use this one, and sometimes number eight, and number nine.

And remember: Americans, if they were going to write it, they'd do two words.

So that's everything that you need to know.

Alright, now it's time for you to do the quiz.

Thanks for watching. Bye.