# When and why has 'alot' become accepted usage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2001, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221 "2001-04-25T02:19:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/1 "2001-04-25T02:19:30Z")
i mean, i see it all the time, at work and other more formal writing environments, not just from morons but from people whose intellect i otherwise hold in respect. what gives? ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/2 "2001-04-25T02:34:45Z")
It has _Not_ become accepted. It looks ignorant no matter who uses it. ---
**Author:** ![Yersinia\_Pestis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ccd318/32.png) [@Yersinia\_Pestis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yersinia_Pestis)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/3 "2001-04-25T02:37:23Z")
I’m not sure what gives, but it ain’t right. Barbara Wallraff (Atlantic Monthly editor and language columnist) from \*\* Word Court\*\* (2000) “A still easier distinction [than between a while and awhile], incidentally, is between _alot_ and _a lot_, because there is no distinction to be made: _alot_ is never right.” (161) The 3rd edition of **Fowler’s Modern English Usage** (1996) says “ **alot** : This illegitimate form of _a lot_ is begining to turn up in informal correspondence in American English [snip 3 citations from 1991]” I see _alot_ gratingly often, but almost never in a formal or business context. I would guess it’s a creeping kind of error–the more you see it, the more it looks right. I don’t want to get into a prescriptive/descriptive debate, but…it’s wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/4 "2001-04-25T02:44:21Z")
As a freelance copyeditor, I can confirm that “alot” has NOT become accepted usage. I challenge anyone to provide a cite from any standard usage reference. It certainly doesn’t appear in any of my references as anything but an illiterate abomination. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/5 "2001-04-25T02:53:40Z")
all my cites are that it is an abomination to be destroyed on sight. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/6 "2001-04-25T03:24:30Z")
I think that it’s just because it’s used so often. It is one of my more common typing errors. Most of the time I catch it and go back and insert a space but sometimes I don’t. Perhaps it has just become so common that it is assumed to be “acceptable”–MHO, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/7 "2001-04-25T05:08:50Z")
Personally, I rate using “alot” instead of “a lot” as moronic as not using capital letters. ---
**Author:** ![scampering\_gremlin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@scampering\_gremlin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scampering_gremlin)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/8 "2001-04-25T08:09:04Z")
Upon encountering this concoction I immediately correct the spelling. Then I strike out the rest of the sentence as meaningless and allot my attentions elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/9 "2001-04-25T09:34:25Z")
To-day, as others have pointed out, _alot_ is still generally considered incorrect. But I fear that some sad to-morrow the more compact spelling may win out. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/10 "2001-04-25T09:36:24Z")
Spelling ‘a lot’ as one word is one of my biggest pet peeves. It drives me crazy. If it does become accepted usage, I think I’ll have to cry. Jman (Here’s my 500th post party…woo hoo! Ok, Party over.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/11 "2001-04-25T11:07:18Z")
It’s no better and no worse than “alright”, which, I fear, has become all too prevalent. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/12 "2001-04-25T11:19:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by whitetho \* > \*\*To-day, as others have pointed out, _alot_ is still generally considered incorrect. But I fear that some sad to-morrow the more compact spelling may win out. \*\* Brilliant satire whitetho, brilliant. I shall never understand the rage of the prescriptivist over such minor matters, although I don’t use alot a lot. “Illiterate abominations”? Langauge evolution. ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-has-alot-become-accepted-usage/63221/13 "2001-04-25T11:26:13Z")
When I was teaching High School I was constantly correcting “alot” on written assignments. It is not correct. If it ever becomes correct usage, I will stop speaking English and switch to some other language. The other ‘pet peeve’ I have regarding language is the whole “good/well” thing. Oh yeah, and “should of/could of”. But that’s a whole nuther thread. 🙂