alot of

[nonEnglish]

Lately I see many people use 'alot of' instead of 'a lot of'; but 'alot' isn't in my dictionary. Do you guys notice that? Is it merely a typo or some sort of a new trend?

[Casiopea]

alot - It's common, very common.

Perhaps this common spelling error began because there does exist in English a word spelled “allot” which is a verb meaning to apportion or grant. The correct form, with “a” and “lot” separated by a space is perhaps not often encountered in print because formal writers usually use other expressions such as “a great deal,” “often,” etc. If you can’t remember the rule, just remind yourself that just as you wouldn’t write “alittle” you shouldn’t write “alot.”

Source: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brains/errors/alot.html

See also, Spelling Alot Wrong Alot http://www.oddtodd.com/message50.html

[isa]

I tried clicking on your wsu link casiopea, but got the 404 site, so I re-searched it, and this is what came up:

alot

[queenbu]

Hello Isa-wb

The wsu link gave me missing file but Casiopea's second link didn't give me what you got. It gave the following:
Spelling Alot Wrong

I spell 'alot' a-l-o-t. This is apparently not a word- it's two. On this website when I write about stuff I use 'alot' alot. When you have a limited vocabulary alot just works alot. The nonword 'alot' just seems to fit in so many places. But I get alot of email from people telling me that 'alot' is two words. "A lot". But when I spell alot like 'a lot' it looks like a lot like a parking lot or something. Alot just looks right to me spelled that way. People can say well who cares what looks right to you? Alot of stuff might look right -but it's wrong -just like the way you spell 'a lot'.

The thing that surprises me is how much my spelling a lot 'alot' seems to bother people. If alot of people bother to write in to correct me- there must be alot of people out there who get bothered alot by me writing a lot 'alot' but aren't bothered enough to like write in and let me know that it bothers them alot.

But what looks right to you?

"I take naps alot. It helps me stay normal."

"I take naps a lot. It helps me stay normal."

Uh oh... now that I actually wrote them out side by side like that.. The bottom one does look sort of righter. Uh... Now that confuses me alot because a lot always looked right alot. A lot. Uh. I'm just not sure what the hell I'm going to do now.

But in any case the people who get annoyed alot from seeing a lot spelled 'alot'. I do know I do it wrong. I'll try not to do it a lot. I'll try not to do it alot. See that time alot looked right not spelled 'a lot'. I guess when in doubt you got to go with proper english and not personal attachments to nonwords. Maybe I should just avoid using alot... umm... so much.

ok bye!

tOdd
I remember you had mentioned this thing about alot. Now I see that there is a new thread posted by you- I was surprised to see there was already a second page but then I found they were all your posts. I haven't had time to read anything yet.
See you around - queenbu

[isa]

Heheh queenbu,

When I said the 404 error site, I meant

The file you requested does not exist on this server. Please try again. The "Location" line at the top should list the name of the file that you attempted to access.

Which ultimately boils down to the same thing

[queenbu]

Originally Posted by isa

Heheh queenbu,

When I said the 404 error site, I meant

Which ultimately boils down to the same thing

I know that, isa. But then I copied and pasted what I got from the other link which is quite different to what you got!