英语词汇辨析：all right & alright

 Is it acceptable¹ to write alright as one word, rather than two separate ones? For example:

　　将all right 用单个单词alright来代替是不是可以接受的呢?比如：

　　She calls them whenever she is travelling to assure them she is alright.

　　无论她何时出行，她都会给他们打电话使他们确信自己最近不错。

　　事实上，alright是all right 的合并词。

　　Similar ‘merged’ words such as altogether and already have been accepted in standard English for a very long time, so there is no logical reason to object to the one-word form alright.

　　相似的合并词汇还有altogether和already，这两个词汇在很早以前就已经被纳入新词，因此，从理论上来讲，我们不应该拒绝一个单词构成的alright。

　　Nevertheless, many people dislike it and regard it as incorrect, so it’s best to avoid using alright in formal writing. Write it as two separate words instead:

　　然而，仍有很多人不喜欢alright这个词甚至认为其是错误的。因此我们在较为正式的写作中最好避免使用alright。将它写作all right这两个单词来代替：

　　如上面的例子可写为：

　　She calls them whenever she is travelling to assure them she is all right.

1 acceptable   

adj.可接受的，合意的，受欢迎的

参考例句：

• The terms of the contract are acceptable to us.我们认为这个合同的条件可以接受。
• Air pollution in the city had reached four times the acceptable levels.这座城市的空气污染程度曾高达可接受标准的四倍。