BT Help > Grammar

One Word or Two?

All ready/Already

·        All Ready: Used as an adjective to express complete preparedness.

·        Already: An adverb used to express time.

At last I was all ready to go, but everyone had already left.

All right/Alright

·        All right: Used as an adjective or adverb; older and more formal spelling, more common in scientific and academic writing: Will you be all right on your own?

·        Alright: This is an alternate spelling of all right, less frequently used, but often used in journalistic and business publications, and especially common in fictional dialogue: He does alright in school.

All together/Altogether

·        All together: An adverb meaning considered as a whole, summed up: All together, there were 40 people in the bus.

·        Altogether: An intensifying adverb meaning wholly, completely, entirely: His comment raises an altogether different problem.

Anyone/Any one

·        Anyone: A pronoun meaning any person at all: Anyone who can solve this problem deserves an award.

·        Any one: A paired adjective and noun meaning a specific item in a group; usually used with of: Any one of those papers could serve as an example.

Note: There are similar distinctions in meaning for ‘everyone’ and ‘every one.’

Anyway/Any way

·        Anyway: An adverb meaning in any case or nonetheless: He objected, but she went anyway.

·        Any way: A paired adjective and noun meaning any particular course, direction, or manner: Any way we chose would lead to danger.

Maybe/May be

·        Maybe: An adverb meaning perhaps: Maybe, we should wait until the rain stops.

·        May be: A form of the verb be: This may be our only chance to win the championship.

Note: Please note that I have left Spelling altogether, because as most of us use Microsoft Word, with its auto-correct feature and ability to show up errors that won't be useful. But keying the right word is very important, and often times transcribers type words like "form" instead of "form", and hence a transcriber or editor must have a keen eye to what he types or edits – I mean, every word, every character.