Aloud and Allowed

What is the difference between aloud and allowed?

Aloud means out loud.
Allowed means permitted.

Aloud or Allowed?

The words aloud and allowed sound similar and are sometimes confused.

Aloud

The adverb aloud means out loud and refers to sound (almost always speech).

Examples:

Allowed

Allowed is the past tense of the verb to allow, which means to permit. Allowed is synonymous with (the same as) permitted.

Examples:

A Quick Test

Getting Aloud and Allowed Wrong Is a Howler

Those with English as a second language are more prone to confusing aloud and allowed. A native English speaker confusing these words constitutes a grammatical howler.

Out Loud Not Out Loudly

The term out loud is an adverbial phrase meaning aloud. The term is not out loudly. For example: Read more about LOL than you'll ever need to know.


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See Also

What are adverbs? What are verbs? List of easily confused words