Are you aware that "alot' is wrong? "Alot" should be spelled "a lot". It's TWO separate words, not one; not a compound word either. Is this common error anyone else's pet peeve?
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ANSWERS: 30
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I am aware of that. I would guess that at least 95% of my spellign errors are due to hastiness and carelessness rather than ignorance.
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Yes, this was taught to me in grade school. I never write 'alot'.
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It is one of them. Using "snuck" is another. The past tense of to sneak is sneaked, not snuck. Both of these things seem to be pervasive, at least in the U.S. My son wrote alot on something (He's only 9) and I told him it was two words and he responded "My teacher said it is one word." OH BOY.
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This is quite a common mistake for many people. Another is using "loose" in place of "lose"; "it's" in place of "its"; "your" in place of "you're". It's worse when I find these same mistakes in print; newspapers, websites, magazines. It seems that spelling and grammar are just not as important as they once were.
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I am aware, but often guilty, as well. :-) <~~Is sorry alot - err a lot. ;-)
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Yes I am aware... a lot...however I don't go nuts seeing alot.
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Not a lot of people know that a lot is two words and the word allot has two l's.
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I'm aware, and I have alot of grammar peeves. I think that your not alone. There's alot of people who seem to loose there grammar education as they get older. But, maybe they never really learned it very good. Irregardless, most of the time I could care less. It doesn't really effect me that much. Its really pretty unimportant as long as I can understand what their saying. I usually judge the question or answer based on it's merit. ;-)
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1) Here some instances of this: "Camp Crop Alot offers you several options for a weekend full of cropping!!" http://www.campcropalot.com/ "For 25 years, Choc-Alot has been Tucson’s favorite local chocolate shop." http://www.chocalot.com/ "Bid-Alot Auctions serving the local community." http://www.bid-alot.com/ "Here at Tank-alot we had a dream which could have become a nightmare" http://www.tanklimo.com/ 2) Here some grammar point of view: http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000175.htm 3) Here a discussion about this: http://blather.newdream.net/a/alot.html Interesting is the Google argument: " "Alot" is slang. 80,000,000 google matches-- That's alot." Today, there are even about 129,000,000 results for alot in Google against 561,000,000 for "a lot". So about 18,7% write this alternatively. It *is* a lot!!! What do we learn of this? Languages can sometimes change...
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I have lost a lot of my grammar skills by chatting online since AOL first came out (when they used to charge by the hour)
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Well, as so many people use it as one word I'd say it'll not be too long until it's in various dictionaries. etymonline.com says that the first written use of the word "lot" to mean, well, lots of things is only from 1812. I bet there were people then saying "'lot' doesn't mean "many things, it's wrong to do so!" http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=lot&searchmode=none
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I became aware of myself doing it recently and have tried to correct it.
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I try to explain to my students (grade 4) that it's sort of like saying, "A bunch of...", "A group of...", "A container of..." Hopefully, they recognize that "lot" is a word all on its own.
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Having spent a great deal of time writing when I was gainfully employed, I am aware the "alot" is incorrect. This rates fairly low on my spelling and grammar (not grammer) top peeves list. I am more annoyed by things like have being spelled "haf". . .for example, Do we haf to go to Aunt Bertha's for Christmas this year?
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Your so right; I see that mistake alot. People don't pay attention to there writing anymore. Its really annoying. People should be more careful when their writing. :P Seriously though, my biggest pet peeve - probably because I'm in the Navy - is when people use "Straits" instead of Strait. For example, it should be the Strait of Gibraltar, not the Straits of Gibraltar, etc.. There are very few "straits" in the world.
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I've seen it happen. I seem to be spelling alot of simple words incorrectly lately. Tut tut.
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Yes, it is one of my pet peeves. I know my spelling and grammar are not always perfect, but my father was "Conan the Grammarian" as I used to call him. It drove me nuts that he always corrected us. However, I ended up doing quite well in English/grammar classes and grew up with the same pet peeves as my father. Other ones are mixing up you're/your, whether/weather, to/too.....well, I could go on all night but it probably wouldn't make any difference to those who don't know the difference!
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I am aware and an still guilty
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I spell it alot just because it's the way I've always spelled it. I do it alot, apparently.
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A pet peeve? Not really. I spell it correctly and you can never tell in this case if it's actually spelled that way or a typo. MY pet peeve is more They're (They are), Their (possesive) and THRE (not here)
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I've never seen it spelled alot and never wrote it as such. I think it's just you.
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This is not an original question. It has been discussed here and most people do know that it is two words and that's how i usually see it written here.
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"Alot" is an adverb, as in "I go to the store alot." It describes "how" a verb is "done." It did begin life as "a lot," but it has changed over time by usage. However, "a lot" is a noun phrase, as in "I have a lot of bills." I think the distinction between the noun and the adverb is usefu. So, "alot" isn't "wrong," unless you mistakenly use it for the noun phrase "a lot." cf: awhile
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oops
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oops x 2
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I know that the standard usage is "a lot" and that "a" is the article and "lot" is the noun. However, when I see "alot" I usually know what the writer means based on the contextual usage. I have yet to see the compressed usage and be bothered by it. I'm a member of another site that has a few Dutch members and at least one of them compressed the phrase, "or so" to read "orso". Again, I knew what she meant so no problemo. What bugs me sometimes are sentences with syntax so skewed that I have to rearrange it to understand it.
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I didn't bother to look. Whether it's there or no has no relevance to the difference in use between "a lot" as a noun phrase and "alot" as an adverb. The majority of people who answered the question are laboring under a faulty understanding of how language actually works and what dictionaries are for. But, you go ahead and keep thinking that way. Hey, I'll even let you have the last word here if it makes you feel better. Right you are if you think you are. But I've enjoyed the discussion (how?) alot. ;-)
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It doesn't really bother me alot. Alot of times I think about it alot while I'm typing and I like alot how "alot" looks on paper. Alot of people may not like it alot but I do. ...Alot! :)
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Yes. I've seen it many times on here, and it seems like a new word has been invented. I always thought 'a lot' was correct.
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I am a teacher and I actually prefer the WORD "alot." It should be a legal word used to denote "a large amount of something." Whereas "a lot" (two words) should be used only to describe a "piece of ground" (as in, "You may build your house on a lot at the end of the street"). And as opposed to "allot" which means to "allow someone to have a certain set amount of something," such as "an allotment of money." So I do use "alot" and will will continue to do so!
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