Re: "a lot" Question

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

Damien-
>
> "Alot" a meaning of its own?  Isn't that "Allot"?
> It's Friday afternoon and I'm moving into pedantic mode!!

<<donning former English teacher hat>>

The term "alot" is NOT in a standard reference dictionary - not yet
anyway.  Therefore it's not grammatically correct, no matter what the
illiterati say.  You can either use "a lot" to mean "many," or "allot"
to mean "to divide among a set of recipients."

Another of my pet peeves is "alright," which has even made it into the
title of yet another forgettable TV sitcom.  So many people believe that
since "already" is correct, it's OK to use "alright" when they mean
"all right."  If you look up the definition of "already," you see that
it really does not mean "all ready," so trying to apply the 'similar
construction' rule doesn't work.  It's just plain sloppiness at work.

<<English teacher hat off>>

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems

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