Altogether does not mean all together and all together does not mean altogether!

You can hardly hear the difference when the words are spoken and it has more to do with the rhythm than with the actual pronunciation itself. Most of the time, you can’t hear a difference at all, so do not worry about that.

However, in written English, it is important not to mix up altogether and all together and to spell them correctly.

Altogether means everything considered or counted or totally, completely.

Look at these examples:

• You’re not altogether wrong → You’re not totally wrong
• That’s £23.60 altogether. → That’s £23.60 everything counted.
• Altogether, the show was a great success. → Everything considered, the show was a great success

All together, in two words, means everybody or everything together. 

Here are a couple of examples to see how it can be used:

• The students repeated a sentence all together. → All the students repeated the sentence together.
• To complete a jigsaw puzzle, you have to put the pieces all together. → To complete a jigsaw puzzle, you have to put all the pieces together.

There you are! You now know the difference between altogether and all together, so you can spell them correctly. Congratulations! 🙂