Sometimes colloquial language causes confusion in writing.
I often notice a lot written as one word, alot.
This is a mistake that I’m pretty sure isn’t always a typo. A lot has been written incorrectly so much that many people have accepted the incorrect form as correct. Even educated people make this mistake. So why is it so common? No one really knows. I think the confusion has something to do with the existence of the word allot. Some people even claim they were taught to write a lot as one word in elementary school. Sadly, the incorrect form is now rampant.
alot
alot is not a word.
The correct word to mean a large number is a lot. It’s two words.
• He has alot of books.—incorrect
a lot
It’s an indefinite article (a) with a noun (lot).
The word lot has several meanings including the following:
An object used in deciding something by chance
A share or portion
A plot of land
A group of individuals
A considerable quantity
• He has a lot of books.—correct
And there’s also allot
Allot is a verb that means to distribute as a share.
• The teacher will allot two books to each student.—correct
No one seems to make the mistake of misspelling other article–noun combinations. For instance, we never see acat to mean a cat or adog to mean a dog.
A lot, even when spelled correctly, shouldn’t even be used in formal writing. (But that’s another blog post entirely.) When you not only use a lot but you also misspell it, the quality of your writing declines. And when your readers perceive that your writing is flawed, they will question your message.
Instead of using a lot in your writing, replace it with several or many. But if you must write a lot, remember that it’s always two words.
