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Suppose I have the sentence: "This is a website done right."

It sounds wrong, but I cannot find any grammatical rules that confirm my suspicions. Am I just crazy or is that improper grammar?

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4 Answers 4

up vote 5 down vote accepted

According to M-W.com, right (adverb) can mean "in a suitable, proper, or desired manner", and gives as an example of that usage "knew he wasn't doing it right." So I'm gonna have to go with the "you're just crazy" option. :-)

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How dare you call me crazy! Actually that makes a lot of sense. Thanks! –  Stargazer712 Feb 11 '11 at 2:28

According to the Wiktionary entry for "right", there is no meaning of "right" that is an adverb meaning "correctly" (however, there are other adverbial meanings of "right"). So, if you trust it as a source, the (pedantic, technical, grammatical) answer is no. However, "done right" is very commonly used in informal contexts in American English to mean "done correctly". I would not say or write "done right" in any formal context.

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But it is in the entry for adverb right in Merriam-Webster. –  Kosmonaut Feb 11 '11 at 0:12
@Kosmonaut: Merriam-Webster ≫ Wiktionary :-P Although, I’d agree with @Nick that regardless of whether it’s grammatically correct, “done right” is associated more with informal than with formal usage. –  PLL Feb 11 '11 at 2:03

It may sound wrong because it's a contraction - the full form is "this is a website that was done right". Now that's ugly passive voice, I think "someone did a great job on this website" sounds better.

In other words, it's wrong in the same way as "as seen on TV" is wrong :-)

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+1 for passive voice. I think there's a decent chance that is why it sounds wrong to me :) –  Stargazer712 Feb 11 '11 at 2:27

I think you're just crazy. (Hey, you started this! ;-))

It sounds perfectly fine to me.

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