Already vs All ready

Compare it Versus > Grammar > Difference between already and all ready
First published on 15th of October 2015, updated most recently on 2nd January 2023
Edited by Mary S., secondary school English teacher

Already and all ready are homophones, meaning they sound very similar but mean different things.

This often causes some confusion.

All ready means all prepared in the sense that every person in the group is fully prepared and set to go.

Already refers to something before a specific time or the time which has been implied in the given sentence.

Read on to find out more about the difference.

All ready and already examples of homophones

Distinguishing between homophones is probably the most difficult aspect of English language and amongst many others (think of affect vs effect) a pair that never fails to flummox readers and writers of the English language is that of already and all ready.

In order to learn the difference between the two words, you must first understand what they mean.

Meaning of all ready

All ready means all prepared in the sense that every person in the group is fully prepared and set to go.

Examples of all ready used in sentences:
I am all ready for my exam at school tomorrow.
The players were all ready  to go in the final game of the season.

Meaning of already

Already refers to something before a specific time or the time which has been implied in the given sentence.

Examples of already used in sentences:
You are already here? I thought our meeting was in 2 hours.
I am already at the offices

Difference between already and all ready

Let us use the following sentence as an example clearly show you the difference between all ready and already.

All ready – Scouts at the camp are all ready to start their hike.

Already – Scouts at the camp have already left for their hike.

In the first sentence, all ready refers to the fact that the scouts are completely prepared (or ready) to commence on their activity. In the second sentence already is indicative of the fact that they left for their hike in the not too distant past and are presently hiking.

Going deeper into the difference, all ready is an adjective phrase while already is an adverb, meaning a word that modifies a verb.

Therefore, if you are unsure as to whether you should use ‘all ready’ or ‘already’, one way of checking entails whether it modifies the verb in the sentence. If it does, then it has to be ‘already’ and if it does not then it will be ‘all ready’.

There is another simpler way of discerning which one to use and it entails substituting the expression with two words. Suppose you replace the existing expression with the words ‘completely prepared’, does the sentence still retain its meaning? If the word in question is ‘all ready’ then it will retain its original meaning but if it is ‘already’ then the meaning would change completely.

For example:
I have all ready finished my shopping.

To make out whether this usage is correct, you must replace this phrase with ‘completely prepared’, so that the sentence would read:
I have completely prepared finished my shopping.

Obviously is does not sound correct and this in turn points to the fact that using ‘all ready’ was a wrong choice. It should instead have been ‘already’ for the sentence to sound correct which would be:
I already finished my shopping.

Do you have anything to add to our all ready and already differences?

Do you have any tips to remember how to differentiate the two?

Let us know in the comments section below.

References

1. Dictionary.com dictionary, accessed in January 2023, link to Dictionary.com homepage here