Altogether or all together?  Is it one word or two? It can be both, but we use them in different ways.

Altogether

Altogether, as one word, is an adverb. It can mean completely, on the whole or in total. Let’s look at some examples.

Completely
After a morning of drizzle, it stopped raining altogether in the afternoon.

On the whole
The fundraising event was altogether quite successful.

In total
I have £17. If you give me £3, I will have £20 altogether.

All Together

The adverbial phrase all together means ‘with each other’, and is similar to together, but refers to everything in a group in the same place or at the same time.

– At the class reunion it was great to have our old friends all together again.
– Why don’t we all go together in one car?

Those were examples of everything in the same place.

Now this example is for at the same time.
You’ve practised your parts, now let’s sing all together.

The Altogether

Here’s something amusing.  You can use altogether as a noun, with a definite article, it means naked – the altogether.  It’s a euphemism and a bit old fashioned, because people in the old days didn’t like to say words like naked or nude!

Watch the video to see the clip I have embedded. It’s from the old movie Hans Christian Anderson. In it, the author is telling a group of children the story of the King’s New Clothes.

This clip is from the part of the story where a young boy realises that the king is, in fact, naked. The song uses the noun and the adverb in different ways. Why don’t you slow down the video and try to work out which altogether he is referring to?

Did you catch them all?  Write in the comments (on YouTube) what you think each altogether means.

Until next time!