I'm working through a beta report and I'm getting a couple of suggestions that seem odd to me, but also kinda not odd. So now I'm confused, because I'm not a native English speaker and I wanna run a few things by y'all before I commit to the suggestions. Was & Were If Eddie was going to give the goths a room... Beta reader suggests it should be "were." I've got a whole big bunch of this in the story, and the more I see the correction, the more it starts to make sense, but I wonder if that's just the repetition getting to me. Alright All Right I use "alright," but that seems to be wrong. Even the dictionary says so. But still the correct spelling of "all right" looks all wrong. If it's really "all right" then why have I never noticed it? May & Might Which may have had something to do with... Beta reader suggests it should be "might." Same as was & were. Amongst & Among The problem here is apparently English and American spelling. Got a couple of other words with the ST suffix on them as well. I'm writing in American, but the American spelling of these words looks like I forgot to type a few letters. Most of this can be confirmed with some googling, but this is the first time it's been pointed out to me. Ever. That is a little worrying. Edit: Forgot the big one. Song titles. When to put in italics and when to put in quotations? Beta reader suggests a differentiation between album and song, where the album title would be in italics, and the song in quotes. I remember a sort of thread about this, but not where we landed on the topic.
Were is the more formal way to do it, Either one works, but was sounds like the way a normal person would say it and were is the way an English teacher or Very Intelligent Person would say it. Maybe if your narrator is very intelligent and speaks very properly (I don't think he does?) go with were. In fact to be even more proper and upper-class about it, it would be: 'If he were to' (leave out the Going). But I mean, normal people don't talk like that. That's for stuffy upper-crust types who sip expensive burgundy and wear their glasses halfway down their nose while saying things like "Oh pish-posh!" Depends on the situation. If someone's been badgering you to do something and you finally break down and agree, that would be Alright. It basically means yes or Ok. I'm not sure where All Right would be appropriate, I'd need to see something in context. Pretty much interchangeable. Yeah, it's a British/American thing, like the extra letters in Aluminum, Color etc. Lift instead of Elevator, Bonnet instead of Hood etc. To me the British way generally sounds more proper and highfalutin', while the American way sounds more informal and ordinary.
Whatever done gave y'all that idea, yo? I use it in all contexts. "Alright, let's go." "Can you please be quiet?" "Alright." "Everything's gonna be alright." It's the mayonnaise of words for me. I put it in to make the sentence a little better.
Ok, alright is the right word for all of those. The only time I could see using all right is for something like "They were all right—every one of them." Meaning they were all correct. Otherwise I can't think of a situation where you'd separate all and right like that.
If you were to put "were," you might want to get rid of the "going." Like, If Eddie were to give the goths a room....
The way I learned it with these conditional phrases, you use "was" if the thing is possible and it may or may not happen. You use "were" if it isn't possible. "If Eddie was to give the goths a room . . . " means he has the room to give, but isn't sure if he can or should let these people use it. "If Eddie were to inherit a castle, he'd have whole hallways of rooms to give the goths" means there's no castle to inherit. It's all good feels and fantasy.
Yeah, and I want people to believe I'm all smart-like too, so I'm counting on y'all not to tell anyone I'm on here asking all these questions. ;o)
