“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?

I’m from Edinburgh and I don’t think these phrases are remotely Scottish.

Who is doing that?! I’ve never seen that mistake. They don’t even sound the same.

The thing is you either have to ask for clarification to be sure of the meaning (in many cases, not all) or assume the person has made a mistake. I always thought it was a bit arrogant to assume the person had made a mistake without checking. But you can't ask without people saying you're a dick for asking.

I have seen it a few times on here.

Our and are sound nothing alike in my Scottish accent but in some English accents they do.

We had an exercise in a literacy book where the children had to choose our/are in a sentence. Pretty pointless for us as it was obvious.

They're not exactly "cat" and "ouroboros", are they?

Sorry as I haven't RTFT but my pet hates are "your" instead of "you're", "there's" instead of "their's" and "exaggerate" instead of "exacerbate".

That last one really bloody winds me up. But obviously sometimes it's just because they're not used to seeing the correct word, and I guess must think their ways has been always right. 🤔😳

Yes, i agree. Although a class teacher I had at aged 7 would always over enunciate our by saying it with a real emphasis on the first sound.

My dad has a way of saying it as "ahhhs" but I think it'll be more to do with his Norwich/Norfolk dialect variation more than anything else.

I don't think it's a reflection on someone's intelligence necessarily. Just perhaps their standards they like to keep.

I always think that "Please can I have..." just sounds a bit more polite and less demanding than "Can I get..."

Oh god, per say drives me mad! And on route!

My favourite ever had to be "wa-la" for "voila" - that really made me chuckle 😂

Very good 😂

To get back to the question, I think the reason people write “alot” and “abit” is because they get confused by words like “about” “apart” and “above”.
Add general poor spelling and not being very observant or caring, and there you have the answer.
What annoys me is the ubiquitous use of “the reason why” - you only need to say “the reason” - see above.
I also hate the syntax in so many mm posts which start “Aibu to not want…” Aarghh! It’s “not to want” ffs.

I agree but this is how the world is going.
My pet peeve is that people used to correctly use the verb ‘change’ and now everybody is using ‘change it up’. (An American-ism? There is a Jennifer Anniston film called ‘The Change Up’) Nobody seems to be bothered about this except me, including otherwise well-spoken adults.

One I've noticed recently is "It's not that big OF a deal"

We don't need the of thanks.

No but they do sound different from each other. People can surely tell the difference between a word starting “bo” and one starting “bro”?!

I think it is as simple as the two words are said together so much that people - especially those who are not big readers and see the words written down a lot - assume 'alot' is a word. It is the same with 'aswell' as well.

My English XH used to say brought when he meant bought.
Drove me mad.

It annoys me. But I know language changes, so I try to overlook it.

I think it should be made into a word. Lots of people use. Just give up 😂

I mean there are quite a few words that are two or multiples pushed together. Maybe they started off like this.

A few of my primary teachers used it and my English teacher at high school was annoyed we all thought it a word.

Honestly, listen to yourself.

Do you speak like someone from the 17th century? The 1920s? The second World War?

No, of course you don't. You use all kinds of more modern phrases and words.

It's not how the world is going, it's how language has always evolved.

🙄🙄🙄

I know the difference, my phone apparently does not.

Auto correct fucks it up, it doesn't flag it up. For such an expensive phone you'd think it would have had a far better education.

On what authority are you claiming that it is right to say "not to want" and wrong to say "to not want."

Says who?

There's a 'name' for this & why our brains do it, but I can't remember it right now & cba googling

One I'm never sure about is "anymore". I feel it should be two words but I'm always autocorrected to one word. I can see how it would become one word but has that happened yet? 😄 Is that correct standard English?