A lot not alot

[Goslowlysideways]

Why do so many people on here think there is such a word as ALOT?!
It’s A LOT
There is no such word as alot.

Thank you for coming to my hormonal insomniac Ted talk.

Can anyone enlighten me as to whether 'anymore' is correct or not?

I've always written 'any more' (as in 'I can't stand this any more'!) but in recent years have started seeing 'anymore' all over the place. Even my autocorrect seems fine with it.

Is this:
a) one of those things where variants are acceptable (like 'alright' / 'all right')
b) an Americanism which is now taking hold in the UK
c) something which was always correct and it was me doing it wrong (!)
or d) another stupid thing like 'alot'?

Please put me out of my misery, I can't stand it 'anymore'! Thanks!

@HerBigChance

I think 'atop' is one of those archaic words which fell out of use in Britain (you find it in 19th century literature) but continued to be commonplace in America, and has now come full circle and is coming back to us.

@chrislilleyswig It’s 10/10. Definitely.

@turquoise50
Thanks! That makes sense

Any more should be two words IMO. It grates on me otherwise, which is a good enough reason for everyone to adhere to my rules.
And ‘alright’ is not all right, not to me, anyway (though why anyway should be one word when the other isn’t....)

It used to grate on me when the Wilko vehicles had, ‘Everytime!’ scrawled over them in giant letters. They should have been heavily fined for irritating me on a regular basis.🙂

I'm a Scouser but I detest the use of 'Youse' and I don't really know anyone who says it. It's a bit of a myth really and would only be used by someone who didn't understand it's not actually a word. It's just so wrong and sounds awful.

@Bbq1 same. It grates. It's not exclusively Scouse either; I live in a different part of the country and the people in a town here say it as well.

Any more should be two words IMO. It grates on me otherwise, which is a good enough reason for everyone to adhere to my rules.

“Have you got any more of these in stock?” = refers to quantity, so two words.

“No; unfortunately they don’t make them anymore” = refers to time, so one word.

all together/altogether; two different meanings - so both are needed
all ready/already; two different meanings - so both are needed
all ways/always; two different meanings - so both needed
all right/alright; one meaning so only one needed = all right.

Surprised to find alright is actually listed as a real word. But not in my world thanks!

@StillCoughingandLaughing I see the logic, but had just never seen it written as one word, in any context, until a few years ago, which is why I wondered if it was an American usage that had started to become more widespread.

For the record, I have never liked 'alright' and always write 'all right', but I’m sure I remember being told as a child that 'alright' was equally (or maybe more?) correct. I came across it written that way a few days ago, and it pulled me up short because I realised I hadn't seen it for a very long time. It mostly appears in older books and now seems to be almost obsolete which is 'alright' with me!

However the argument about the different meanings does suggest why it originally existed: 'Well done, you got them all right' isn't the same as 'I managed it alright'. But people clearly don't like how 'alright' looks and so over time, we have replaced it with 'all right'.

Which is probably sad news for those who don't like linguistic change and object to the use of 'alot' etc, because if enough people use an 'incorrect' term for long enough, eventually it gets promoted to 'both variants are acceptable' and ultimately it may supplant the 'correct' usage. See also 'any more' / 'anymore' which I think is a case of people seeing 'anyway' 'anyhow' etc and assuming, by extension, that 'any more' used adverbially for time, must be one word, like 'sometimes' or 'forever', which presumably originated as two-word phrases.

Interestingly, my autocorrect has just offered me 'forevermore' as a single word. I think if I ever had cause to use that expression (although why would you?), I would have serious pause over whether that was one word or two (forever more - does that look wrong?). But then I always cringe about writing 'nevertheless' which I know is correct but looks utterly ridiculous IMO. If that can be a word, then really there's no reason why 'alot' shouldn't be one.

It would be helpful (especially to language learners) if there was some consistency about whether adverbial expressions were always one word or always separate words, but like everything else in English, of course it's completely random!