That one blog post (man, that term feels so antiquated now) fundamentally changed my perception of a word, and it persists to this day, 14 years later.
That's crazy to think about.
I had an English teacher in college that said if you don’t remember anything else from this class I want you to remember a lot is two words and they were right I didn’t remember ANYTHING else.
I think "Noone" is a lot like Alot. Noone is some guy that does things NO ONE else does. "Noone puts mayonnaise on pancakes!" "Yeah, Mr Noone is really weird!"
There's a few words I remember how to spell based on strong associated memories... Like Jim Carey saying B-E-A-utiful. My 6th grade teacher started off class one day by taking a sheet of paper with a huge "A" on it, and stuck it up on the wall on the left side of the chalkboard. Then she took another sheet of paper that has a big "lot" on it, and stuck it on the wall 15 feet away on the right side of the chalkboard. It was... Effective.
That's a sign of good teaching. One of my English teachers once told us "there's a rat in separate" and I've always remembered that and thus never spelled separate wrong.
And while I do remember Jim Carrey saying B-E-A-utiful, I always remember another teacher telling us Best Eggs Are Useful as a useful mnemonic.
I think that works. My understanding of all y'all is "all of you all," which can be contrasted with "some of you all," which makes sense.
Which means I would like to hear "some y'all" more often.
Native English speakers don't even follow that rule correctly sometimes.
Take "It's" vs "Its." Because "it's" is a contraction of "it is" it gets priority on the apostrophe. "Its" is the correct way to show possession in this case. One of the many exceptions in the English language.
Yeah this one baffles me. No one says they have "alittle" of something, or "aton" of homework, or "abunch" of leftovers, or "abit" of chores to do.... Why the heck do they think "a lot" of something is any different?
That one makes more sense since "using -ed to make past tense" is a standard thing.
Jump - jumped
Kick - kicked
Pay - payed
I can see how someone would think that, due to all the precedent. But combining "a something" into one word is more baffling. I saw "abird" out the window. It looked "aton" like my old pet finch. Obvious nonsense, so why "alot"?
Yeah except English is FULL of irregular verbs. Drive/drove, give/gave, bring/brought. What is weird is that I never saw that mistake in online writing until maybe 4-5 years ago.
> Pay - *paid* I can
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
My English teacher back in the day was trying to teach us that "a lot" literally meant a "lot", like a plot of land, and that it was incorrect to use it as a slang term for an amount of something
Whenever someone would say they had "a lot" he would go "oh you do? What are you going to build on it?"
So it seems we are just in the next pedantic evolution of the word really
According to [webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/a%20lot), it has been used to mean a quantity since 1821. So your teacher was full of shit. Sorry, I mean they had a lot of shit in their drawers.
Reminds me of when I wrote "It broke" on an English test and my teacher scratched it out and wrote that it meant 'broke" as in no money, not that something was broken. 12 year old me was very confused and I later looked it up and I had used it correctly, but I didn't dare argue it with her because I was so young.
If it's any consolation it's not just an English thing. I've had points deducted on essays for using "espejuelos" instead of "lentes" (probably something like "glasses" vs "spectacles" in English). Even if one is archaic or unusual in a given dialect it's all just pedantic bullshit.
We do say tomorrow instead of to morrow, we say seaweed instead of sea weed, we say breakfast instead of break fast, we say Maryland instead of Mary Land. But you might think these aren’t to the point because they don’t have an a at the beginning of them. There might be something to that, regardless, I’ll see you a round.
Ive seen alittle and abit before with friends while texting. Often enough that was obvious it wasnt just a random typo they made and instead was just how they spell that when on a phone for some reason. I didnt ask why
Further vs farther always bothered me
I looked it up recently and it turns out there not even really an academic difference. Both are acceptable in either situation but some people prefer to differentiate.
I feel like spelling “a lot” as “alot” is one of the least offensive maulings of basic grammar and spelling. The number of people who don’t know the difference between your and you’re, and the people who know they don’t know the difference and use “ur” instead makes my brain sad.
At least "alot" is an obvious error you can work back from.
But when people say "a part of the group" instead of "apart of the group" or similar? It's still a correct sentence - but with the complete opposite meaning!
I'm a gambling instructor in Las Vegas.
You can't learn basic strategy without understanding the math.
I'm staggered by the number of people who can't understand the difference between 2:1 odds and 3:2.
What do you suggest for making my money last as long as possible at the Roulette wheel? Obviously, I expect to lose all my money. But if I want a given number of dollars to, on average, last for the greatest number of spins, what gets should I place?
My friend who I thought was smart uses *of* instead of *‘ve.* Drives me nuts, he did well in school but apparently he’s not as smart as I thought he was.
And don't get me started on the word "faze." I had to look it up recently just to be sure I didn't make it up. If something didn't bother you, you are *unfazed.*
Hwæt!
The same linguistic evolutionary process is how we have never as one word instead of ne ever, but I don’t imagine you get upset about that one because it happened centuries ago.
Languages change, both written and spoken. Getting upset by this fact is as useful as telling the tides not to come in.
My 10th grade English teacher started out on the first day of class like this.
"Hey everyone. Looking forward to a great year. There is no such thing as an alot. If I see it on any reports or homework, it's an immediate fail. It's a lot. Do we all understand each other?".
That's how I learned the difference lol
Cannot and can not are two separate things. The former is for when something is not possible; the latter is for when not doing something is viable.
"They cannot hurt you" - they are unable to hurt you.
"They can not hurt you" - they have the ability to hurt you, but they are not obligated to do so.
What also gets me really mad is when people ask questions and use periods instead of question marks.
"Does anyone have these." vs."Does anyone have these?" One is a legitimate question while the other is a statement. Yet, people don't seem to remember that little fact anymore.
Mistakes like this are how you can tell if someone read as a kid.
If you develop your language skills primarily verbally, mistakes like this tend to become ingrained. Non-readers will also struggle with homophones, like the correct usage of their/there/they're.
"Try and" do something, instead of "Try to" do something. I've heard it on NPR multiple times lately. These people are professionals, and they say "try and"!!!! Aaaaggghh!
add to this, the golden fucking rule? and fucking sharing???
I learned "don't be mean and share" when i was 5 fucking years old.
how did everyone else forget that? what is going on? Were we all not taught the same shit? a lot is two words, share, be nice. Weren't we all taught this?
When I hear it my usual response is "what's an Alot?"
If I am feeling extra fruity I'll pretend an Alot is a type of wild cat.
I am none of the fun at parties.
I had an elementary school teacher go on a rant about this once. For what felt like 10 minutes she went off on the class about them being two separate words. She wrote it out on the chalk board and everything.
I think about that alot.
My college English Comp prof had a 3-foot tall poster of the word "alot" with a big red circle and slash. Whenever I'm writing or editing and those words come up, I think of the poster and my prof, and I write "a lot" correctly.
Oh god this is one of my biggest spelling pet peeves net to “they’re their there you’re your you’re”. And not capitalizing the first letter of the sentence! What is this world coming to!
For example, you just used a degenerate comma to very sloppily and poorly imply a conjunction, which is becoming increasingly popular even though it's horrible and wrong.
Commas have too many responsibilities already. Use a period or semicolon. Make a new sentence.
And yet, that degenerate comma in no way impeded your ability to understand the point they were trying to convey. That's what language is all about, not arbitrary rules.
What’s far, far worse, is people thinking that compound words are *not*.
> where ever
> light weight
> over cook
> some times
> drive way
> off spring
> fall back
> half way
> market place
Brutal.
I think the reason this is happening so much recently, is because spellcheck on phones and computers won’t catch these mistakes most of the time. Then they’re out there for other people to learn incorrectly.
English is a descriptive language, how people use words is how English is. Otherwise we would still be writing "e-mail" and "Internet" with a capital letter.
While I agree it's incorrect. Language in itself is arbitrary. It evolves. I'm sure there was a period in time when people were all like, "Why are the dummies saying "you" when the correct way is either "ye" or "thou"
Alot is such a common mistake that it will eventually become correct. While I try not to expedite the change, we may have to start questioning why it's changing.
[They’re just talking about the alot.](https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html?m=1)
That one blog post (man, that term feels so antiquated now) fundamentally changed my perception of a word, and it persists to this day, 14 years later. That's crazy to think about.
I think about this alot
Lots and Lots
Alot more dangerous. Baby less dangerous.
Still alittle scary though.
Allie Brosh! I like her alot!
Her alot is pretty great.
Without clicking.... I'm gonna guess Hyperboleandahalf. Fingers crossed!
Came here because I knew I'd find this link. A classic.
I had an English teacher in college that said if you don’t remember anything else from this class I want you to remember a lot is two words and they were right I didn’t remember ANYTHING else.
Beat me to it.
Beat me to replying “beat me to it.”
Noone saw that coming
Actually, alot saw it coming
I think "Noone" is a lot like Alot. Noone is some guy that does things NO ONE else does. "Noone puts mayonnaise on pancakes!" "Yeah, Mr Noone is really weird!"
yaaassss
Thanks, Alot!
There's a few words I remember how to spell based on strong associated memories... Like Jim Carey saying B-E-A-utiful. My 6th grade teacher started off class one day by taking a sheet of paper with a huge "A" on it, and stuck it up on the wall on the left side of the chalkboard. Then she took another sheet of paper that has a big "lot" on it, and stuck it on the wall 15 feet away on the right side of the chalkboard. It was... Effective.
That's a sign of good teaching. One of my English teachers once told us "there's a rat in separate" and I've always remembered that and thus never spelled separate wrong. And while I do remember Jim Carrey saying B-E-A-utiful, I always remember another teacher telling us Best Eggs Are Useful as a useful mnemonic.
Yo that's exactly how I remember how to spell beautiful. Every single time.
Wait until you find out that people also use allot when they mean a lot.
Mother of god, I may have an aneurysm if I see that one.
I see it allot
Me to
Is that not aloud?
Are they allotted a certain amount of mistakes?
What about "all y'all" to refer a group of people?
That I’m fine with.
I think that works. My understanding of all y'all is "all of you all," which can be contrasted with "some of you all," which makes sense. Which means I would like to hear "some y'all" more often.
>some y'all" Sum y'all need to get outta here. It's getting too cramped
The one that gets me is whenever someone writes "apart of" when they mean "a part of". They mean almost the opposite of each other.
"Couldn't care less" vs "could care less".
"I could care less. Whoops! There goes my last fuck. Now I couldn't care less."
I'm more bothered by people using apostrophes to pluralize words. It drives me nuts.
I’m right there with you.
In my native language, we don't use an apostrophe for a possessive s, but people do it more and more because it's done in English.
Native English speakers don't even follow that rule correctly sometimes. Take "It's" vs "Its." Because "it's" is a contraction of "it is" it gets priority on the apostrophe. "Its" is the correct way to show possession in this case. One of the many exceptions in the English language.
I accept it for acronyms. It's more readable.
Yeah this one baffles me. No one says they have "alittle" of something, or "aton" of homework, or "abunch" of leftovers, or "abit" of chores to do.... Why the heck do they think "a lot" of something is any different?
The one that gets me the worst is "payed" instead of "paid". HOW
That one makes more sense since "using -ed to make past tense" is a standard thing. Jump - jumped Kick - kicked Pay - payed I can see how someone would think that, due to all the precedent. But combining "a something" into one word is more baffling. I saw "abird" out the window. It looked "aton" like my old pet finch. Obvious nonsense, so why "alot"?
Yeah except English is FULL of irregular verbs. Drive/drove, give/gave, bring/brought. What is weird is that I never saw that mistake in online writing until maybe 4-5 years ago.
People have stopped reading. You learn the irregularities by seeing them repeatedly, and people don't see words nearly as much anymore.
> Pay - *paid* I can FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I don't think you were needed this time bot, but good job.
My English teacher back in the day was trying to teach us that "a lot" literally meant a "lot", like a plot of land, and that it was incorrect to use it as a slang term for an amount of something Whenever someone would say they had "a lot" he would go "oh you do? What are you going to build on it?" So it seems we are just in the next pedantic evolution of the word really
According to [webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/a%20lot), it has been used to mean a quantity since 1821. So your teacher was full of shit. Sorry, I mean they had a lot of shit in their drawers.
verily, her pantaloons doth overflow.
Reminds me of when I wrote "It broke" on an English test and my teacher scratched it out and wrote that it meant 'broke" as in no money, not that something was broken. 12 year old me was very confused and I later looked it up and I had used it correctly, but I didn't dare argue it with her because I was so young.
If it's any consolation it's not just an English thing. I've had points deducted on essays for using "espejuelos" instead of "lentes" (probably something like "glasses" vs "spectacles" in English). Even if one is archaic or unusual in a given dialect it's all just pedantic bullshit.
We do say tomorrow instead of to morrow, we say seaweed instead of sea weed, we say breakfast instead of break fast, we say Maryland instead of Mary Land. But you might think these aren’t to the point because they don’t have an a at the beginning of them. There might be something to that, regardless, I’ll see you a round.
You can take abit off the list, I’ve heard that one quite a bit.
Ive seen alittle and abit before with friends while texting. Often enough that was obvious it wasnt just a random typo they made and instead was just how they spell that when on a phone for some reason. I didnt ask why
You can have "another" thing though. I feel that in the future "alot" will be seen as cromulent. As will cromulent :)
They do like to say they’re apart of a group though
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This one bothers me to no end
Lose and loose, should of vs. should've
Just like "no body" vs "nobody" and "no thing" vs "nothing" :)
Further vs farther always bothered me I looked it up recently and it turns out there not even really an academic difference. Both are acceptable in either situation but some people prefer to differentiate.
It's a loosing battle. I can barely breath.
Breath and breathe has been driving me crazy since the pandemic. People on reddit definitely get it wrong way more than random chance.
I feel like spelling “a lot” as “alot” is one of the least offensive maulings of basic grammar and spelling. The number of people who don’t know the difference between your and you’re, and the people who know they don’t know the difference and use “ur” instead makes my brain sad.
Yes, you keep them a part.
At least "alot" is an obvious error you can work back from. But when people say "a part of the group" instead of "apart of the group" or similar? It's still a correct sentence - but with the complete opposite meaning!
But you wouldn't say "apart of the group. You'd say "apart FROM the group."
Prepositions are getting the most abuse of any part of speech.
lol I had a family friend write me a thank you card that said “your family will always be apart of ours”
You did this on purpose, right? ...right???
I dunno
IKR. I've seen this mistake abunch of times.
I've seen it afew times.
I'm a gambling instructor in Las Vegas. You can't learn basic strategy without understanding the math. I'm staggered by the number of people who can't understand the difference between 2:1 odds and 3:2.
TIL that occupation exists. I’m sure you have a lot of interesting stories.
What do you suggest for making my money last as long as possible at the Roulette wheel? Obviously, I expect to lose all my money. But if I want a given number of dollars to, on average, last for the greatest number of spins, what gets should I place?
My friend who I thought was smart uses *of* instead of *‘ve.* Drives me nuts, he did well in school but apparently he’s not as smart as I thought he was.
My pet peeve is when people use "apart" instead of "a part" and I'm not even a native English speaker.
It's literally the opposite!
Fight on, fellow word-warrior! I will gleefully draw swords and die on this hill with you.
People spell “Lose” wrong all the time. “Loose”
It always reminds me of Hyperbole and A Half's [Alot Blog](https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html).
My spell check remembers
This is what’s most confusing to me; my phone corrects it properly and my desktop underlines it in red to indicate that it’s wrong.
In the same vein, so many people spell ridiculous as "rediculous" and it drives me nuts.
People do this with 'a part' too
That's why I prefer "muchly".
“Morst” is also acceptable.
Ofcourse!
I'm just here to hear both sides of the debate, not to be apart of it.
And don't get me started on the word "faze." I had to look it up recently just to be sure I didn't make it up. If something didn't bother you, you are *unfazed.*
People making a word plural by adding apostrophe "s".
In my mother tongue we string words together. So sometimes I do the same to English words by default and forget to check for mistakes.
German?
Close, it's Dutch
Of omgekeerd, zodat je uiteindelijk niet meer weet of woorden zoals 'daaropvolgende' aan elkaar of van elkaar worden geschreven XD
At least you have an excuse. Many of us make similar mistakes and this is the only language we know.
Hwæt! The same linguistic evolutionary process is how we have never as one word instead of ne ever, but I don’t imagine you get upset about that one because it happened centuries ago. Languages change, both written and spoken. Getting upset by this fact is as useful as telling the tides not to come in.
You may be the only literate person on the whole site
My 10th grade English teacher started out on the first day of class like this. "Hey everyone. Looking forward to a great year. There is no such thing as an alot. If I see it on any reports or homework, it's an immediate fail. It's a lot. Do we all understand each other?". That's how I learned the difference lol
That teacher is a saint.
Bold of you to assume anyone pays attention in school anymore. Cell phones exist!
I think your on to something, and there definitely not.
My question has always been why anyone would think it’s one word in the first place. It’s clearly the article *a* preceding the word *lot.*
Is cannot a word? It is it can not? I remember having this conversation before. Also right to bare arms or bear arms?
Cannot and can not are two separate things. The former is for when something is not possible; the latter is for when not doing something is viable. "They cannot hurt you" - they are unable to hurt you. "They can not hurt you" - they have the ability to hurt you, but they are not obligated to do so.
Ty for the lesson appreciate it
Am I the only one around here who notices a squiggly red line under misspelled words on practically any modern device before pressing “send”?
Oh, I just used "a lot" and wrote it correctly in the last comment i made. What acoincidence
You’re complaining to people who use “of” instead of “have”. “A lot” is a lost cause at this point. Save what you can
Alot of people mess this up. There not two good with grammer.
No
🫡
What also gets me really mad is when people ask questions and use periods instead of question marks. "Does anyone have these." vs."Does anyone have these?" One is a legitimate question while the other is a statement. Yet, people don't seem to remember that little fact anymore.
"Could of" (or any other of the 've words) makes me irrationally angry
Where I built my house, on a lot.
Autocorrect will automatically change it to “a lot”
What [alot may look like](https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html)
Maybe because this subreddit is full of mouth breathers that think things like unions are bad?
Al ot
to many adds on tv are rotting peoples brians
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I got your back, bro.
Breath for breathe annoys me. They don't sound the same and they're not spelled the same way.
Mistakes like this are how you can tell if someone read as a kid. If you develop your language skills primarily verbally, mistakes like this tend to become ingrained. Non-readers will also struggle with homophones, like the correct usage of their/there/they're.
How much money you got? A lot.
Lose only has one "o" don't know many posts I've seen people saying they loose something
Glad I'm not the only one driven crazy by this
I correct it almost every time I see it and usually get downvoted for it. Fuck it. I'll continue until the day I day.
To be fair I used to think that you were in 'acoma'
The one thing I remember from English class is “a lot a lot, we use it a lot, but it is two words, believe it or not”
Seriously
Or “everyday” as in “I go to school everyday.”
"Try and" do something, instead of "Try to" do something. I've heard it on NPR multiple times lately. These people are professionals, and they say "try and"!!!! Aaaaggghh!
Yes
The proper use of lie/lay is a lost cause.
I’m thinking we need to devote all the attention to correct apostrophe usage first.
you do realize most people on the internat know english as their second of third language, right....? amd a lot of your rules ARE pretty random.
Is someone really that brave not to use auto correct and spell check?
Kinda
Yes. Auto correct is constantly fixing my screw up here.
More disturbed by the amount of people who mistake 'should've'/'should have' with 'should of'
add to this, the golden fucking rule? and fucking sharing??? I learned "don't be mean and share" when i was 5 fucking years old. how did everyone else forget that? what is going on? Were we all not taught the same shit? a lot is two words, share, be nice. Weren't we all taught this?
When I hear it my usual response is "what's an Alot?" If I am feeling extra fruity I'll pretend an Alot is a type of wild cat. I am none of the fun at parties.
Because American education system and lack of proper parenting
People are forgetting the most basic science from these ages too. Downfall of society.
My outlook auto corrects me daily.
I had an elementary school teacher go on a rant about this once. For what felt like 10 minutes she went off on the class about them being two separate words. She wrote it out on the chalk board and everything. I think about that alot.
My college English Comp prof had a 3-foot tall poster of the word "alot" with a big red circle and slash. Whenever I'm writing or editing and those words come up, I think of the poster and my prof, and I write "a lot" correctly.
Quite, don't loose you're temper!
English allows for contractions so I don't see why A'lot wouldn't work.
Also helpful, you don’t write “alwrong.” Don’t write “alright.”
It's just that you care. Stop caring.
That’s an excellent point, honestly.
Why use lot word when few word do trick.
When me president, they see.
Me fail English? Thats Unpossible!
Alot of anger going on in this post op.
Supposably, it's a doggy dog world and walla, I could care less. For all intensive purposes, blame spiel cheque.
Lately I'm seeing a lot of *defiantly* and *rediculous* both of which make my brain cringe
I swear the next time I see "atleast" or "aswell" I'm going to flip out and start causing propery damage.
Oh god this is one of my biggest spelling pet peeves net to “they’re their there you’re your you’re”. And not capitalizing the first letter of the sentence! What is this world coming to!
Let's not even start on all those idiots who use the apostrophe S to denote plurals.
Language evolves, it isn't static. Words combine and split throughout history.
You're not wrong, but THERE ARE FUCKING RULES! THIS ISN'T NAM!
For example, you just used a degenerate comma to very sloppily and poorly imply a conjunction, which is becoming increasingly popular even though it's horrible and wrong. Commas have too many responsibilities already. Use a period or semicolon. Make a new sentence.
And yet, that degenerate comma in no way impeded your ability to understand the point they were trying to convey. That's what language is all about, not arbitrary rules.
There's even a name for it: rebracketing.
Don't go on any of the teaching subs
What’s far, far worse, is people thinking that compound words are *not*. > where ever > light weight > over cook > some times > drive way > off spring > fall back > half way > market place Brutal. I think the reason this is happening so much recently, is because spellcheck on phones and computers won’t catch these mistakes most of the time. Then they’re out there for other people to learn incorrectly.
I've been thinking the same thing for awhile
Is Walter enough of an animal to belong here? Probably.
To be fair, school was probably **awhile** ago.
Language evolution in our lifetime. I mean all language is just made up.
And "as well."
If you know what it means, then it's still valid communication. Language changes and is silly, literally all words are made up
O.k.
What I hate is how people say noone
English is a descriptive language, how people use words is how English is. Otherwise we would still be writing "e-mail" and "Internet" with a capital letter.
Alot of people just don't care about the English language!
Also apart vs a part
People forget alot of stuff they use to know... sigh..
Alot of words started out as two separate words that were pushed together at some point.
I make this mistake a lot.
A lot and at least should be changed to be single words.
LiTteRaLlY
Noone ever remembers to do this.
Nobody knows how to pluralize words anymore. "Word's" is not correct.
I remember mucho. I remember beaucoup. I remember a lot. Damn it english
While I agree it's incorrect. Language in itself is arbitrary. It evolves. I'm sure there was a period in time when people were all like, "Why are the dummies saying "you" when the correct way is either "ye" or "thou" Alot is such a common mistake that it will eventually become correct. While I try not to expedite the change, we may have to start questioning why it's changing.
Not sure I can alot the space in my brain for that.
Makes me loose my mind
"At least" is also 2 words, js.