“Alot”

[TheClanoftheDook]

Appreciate I’ll be called all the arseholes for this one. But I am actually interested.

I see this constantly. On here. In real life. On another thread, there is an apparent “commercial lawyer” using it.

Why? Where does it come from? How are people looking at “alot” and thinking it’s a word? Aren’t you having to fight the autocorrect to use it? I did. It autocorrected my title more than once.

So. If you use “alot” - why?

My phone is very resistant to correct apostrophe use - I have to be careful with things like "my friends' houses" if I don't want to look illiterate.

I've been wondering for years why people do this only with "alot" - I mean, they don't write atinyamount or ashitload etc. But "abit" does now seem to be creeping in.

I think the only conclusion is that they just don't read books or newspapers or anything that's been proofread, or they'd notice they never saw it when reading. They just read other social media stuff, and absorb the weird mistakes of others.

I've wondered if that was a typo.

I actually remember an English class at the start of one year where the teacher put up common spelling mistakes that she would not tolerate in her class. “Alot” was one of them and I remember thinking even then, who the hell is using that?!

Not seen it myself, though I agree with the sentiment of the OP.

I’m a terrible pedant but I’m very sympathetic to people making mistakes with alot. I can still vividly remember trying to look it up in the dictionary at school aged about 8 and the (lovely) headteacher asking me what I was doing and then explaining that it was actually two separate words & my mind was completely blown by this revelation.

I’m not even a pedant, really, but I just find this particular mistake really baffling. I think an 8 year old can be forgiven for it but fully grown adults…

I did have a similar experience with the word “definitely”. Was told at age 12/13 that there was no A in definitely and I was mortified 🤯😂

Oh no hopefully it allows my post, it’s not offensive, it’s just a link!

😂

Because it mirrors how I might say it in real life I think, "just abit"
I'd also send text messages with words like gahhh ("gahh just seen a huge spider!")
I have a degree and read books, wouldn't write "abit" down in an essay. There's sometimes a difference between how people express themselves in casual messages and more professional pieces of writing... or on forums.

I wouldn't put abit in the same category as que instead of cue though, as I don't see it as a spelling mistake. So this thread is interesting.

Rediculous for ridiculous. I see it on here so often.

@TheClanoftheDook I don't know if they spell it with an a but people around Glasgow actually pronounce definitely as definAtely with the emphasis on the a.

I grew up in Glasgow! This is exactly why I made this mistake.

A lot - a large quantity of something

Allot - to provide a specific amount of something to someone.

I don't think they're confusing it with the second one however.

Anyway, please delete this post if not aloud. Tia.

Rediculous really annoys me too. Especially as it’s clear there’s a red line under it when you type it.

The incorrect use of kerb and curb is irritating too.

I get that it's annoying (and it annoys me too) but "alot" is slightly different from a lot of the other annoyances people are talking about as it's part of a linguistic process called grammaticalisation. 🤓 Briefly, this is where a lexical/content item becomes a grammatical item over time. It often involves words joining together that previously were separate. So here, a + lot +of (determiner + noun + preposition) is becoming alot + of, and will most likely eventually become alotof (determiner) - maybe not in our lifetimes but eventually. So brace yourselves!

In the same way, thank + you (originally verb + pronoun) is becoming thankyou (more obviously an interjection or exclamation).

😂

The error I see most often on Mumsnet that makes my brain itch is "I/he/she done".

Another I just don't understand is why people are described as going gym/pub/etc, e.g.

He goes gym every day.

How can anyone think this sounds right?

What so basically if enough people make a mistake, the mistake becomes correct?

No. I refuse to accept that.

I remember using 'alright' at school and being told it wasn't a word - it should be 'all right'. I was amazed, went to look it up, and my teacher was indeed correct. I've googled it again and am still a bit confused - looks like formally it shouldn't be used, but "all right" seems very old-fashioned!

“Thankyou” is never spelled as one word under any circumstances.

I find it's more common to see alright than all right nowadays.
I go with what I learned at school many moons ago and nobody would have written alright back then. But that was in the days when people knew how to spell and use grammar correctly.
My dad left school at 14 with no qualifications but he never made a SPAG mistake.

I think i heard this about the word Apron, which infact, used to be "A pron" whatever a Pron was...

Or A Napron, i cant quite remember.

Whaaat? That was a perfectly innocuous link to an mildly amusing blog page - what's going on, MNHQ?