Why do so many people spell "a lot" as one word?
by 
lady fuschia
ANSWERS: 2
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They are poor spellers. The more that people use shorthand to communicate (like they do in text messaging) and the more they rely on spoken communication, the less often they have occasion to write things out. Since they don't write things out very much, and the get out of the habit of checking their spelling. And some people just can't learn to spell. Which doesn't mean they're dumb. Some very intelligent and successful people can't spell (for a variety of reasons).
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I, for one, am terrible about using "alot." I know it is supposed to be two words, but I can never seem to break myself of the habit. I have gone so far as to refuse to allow myself to use the phrase at all when I writing a paper or something formal. Even "a lot" is a pretty weak phrase and 9 times out of 10 if you find it in a sentence it means that the sentence could be be reworded in a much better way. I think my desire to think of alot as one word comes from the way I comprehend it when I say it. In my brain, "alot" is a word that is a synonym for many or much so I tend to think of it as a single, four letter word, too. I'm just as bad about trying to use "lots" instead. I guess my writing has a BUNCHA mistakes!
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