Another Grammar Mistake

A few days ago I made a post about how much I hate the term "Epic Fail" because it misuses the word "fail." I actually took some flack for this from at least one person who said I needed to get over it, that the language changes.

Maybe I'll catch flack from that person again with this post.

For the last three weekends I've been minding my own business, trying to watch the NFL on TV, when I see the commercial below. I honestly have no idea what the commercial is saying because I immediately become FIXATED on the first word that appears on the screen: "ALRIGHT."  Guess what? "Alright" is not a word. The words are "all right."

It's actually a pretty common mistake, an outgrowth over the confusion about "all ready" and "already." Those are both correct, though in different situations. "All ready" means "completely prepared," as in "We were all ready for our trip to Disney World," while "already" means "previously," as in "We were already at Disney World."

As I said, both of those are completely correct and accepted by English majors the world over. But "alright" is not a word. It's "all right."

I understand that our language morphs itself over time, and that one day the word "alright" MAY be completely acceptable. But I also know that there is enough disagreement about it right now that Ford should not have included it in this commercial (Okay, I actually went back and watched the commercial just now to see what they were selling). Dozens of people worked on this commercial, and I can only come to one of two conclusions:

1) NO ONE knew that "alright" wasn't a real word, or at least, if someone noticed, he/she didn't bother to tell anyone else.

2) Someone DID notice that "alright" wasn't a word, but it was decided that this error SHOULD be in the commercial, that that's the kind of people who buy Ford trucks; the illiterate.

Either way, I'm a little bothered.



(I can't see the video.)