When should I use...?
Wednesday, 26 August 2009 16:35
There are some very similar sounding and similar spelt words that have similar but slightly different meanings, so it's difficult to know when to use which!
Here's my guide to a couple of the most common ones...
1. Anymore or any more?
When should you use 'anymore' (one word) and 'any more' (two words)? Well, 'anymore' relates to time and 'any more' relates to quantity. Anymore means 'now', 'currently', 'at this time', 'from now on', 'any longer' or 'at the present', whereas any more means 'no more'. Some examples will make this clearer...
- 'We do not have any more work' - which means 'we have no more work' (= quantity).
- 'We are not working anymore' - which means 'we are not working now' (= time).
- 'I can't give you any more love than I already have' - which means 'I can give you no more love than I already have' (= quantity).
- 'I don't love you anymore' - which means 'I have stopped loving you now' (= time).
- 'Do they make this model anymore?' - which means 'do they make this model any longer' (= time).
- 'We promised not to quarrel anymore' - which means 'we promised not to quarrel from now on' (= time).
But as time goes on, 'anymore' is becoming more popular for every context, because American English, that dominates the Internet, is pushing it that way. So watch this space...
2. All right or alright?
The answer here is that 'all right' means that all are correct or satisfactory, and that 'alright' is not a proper word. Many people will be surprised to learn that, because 'alright' is used in popular writing and song lyrics all the time. But it's not 'Alright now!'
'Alright' has become such common usage that I think it's only a matter of time before dictionaries swap 'all right' for 'alright'. After all, 'already' and 'altogether' were originally 'all ready' and 'all together'. But in professionally published English it is, for now, still correct to use 'all right'.
If you don't want to fall into the tempting trap of using 'alright', you could change the sentence so you don't have to use the word! For example, instead of saying 'the answers are all right' you could rewrite this as 'all the answers are right' or 'the answers are all correct.' But personally I hope 'alright' becomes accepted as correct English as soon as possible becuase it would mean much less work to do when correcting everybody!