All right and alright

We use all right as an adjective after verbs such as be, feel, seem or look, but not before a noun (predicative adjective). It means ‘well’, ‘OK’, ‘satisfactory’:

A:

How are you?

B:

I’m all right.

A:

Is everything all right?

B:

Yes, fine thanks.

Was your meal all right?

Not: Was it an all right meal?

All right may be written as alright, but all right is more common:

There was an accident and the bus driver was injured, but all the passengers were alright.

We use all right as an adverb to mean ‘well’, ‘OK’, ‘satisfactorily’:

Jill is really worried about her driving test, but I think she’s doing all right.

A:

Is everything going all right for you these days?

B:

Yes, business is good.

We use all right to show that we want to begin a new topic or a new action:

All right, can we start the music now please?

We also use all right to show that we accept a point of view, or agree with what needs to be done:

All right, you have a point but I still think we need to get more advice.

We can also use all right as a question to follow up a statement. This is informal:

A:

I think I’ll leave at 5. All right?

B:

Yes, that’s okay with me.