Alot or a lot! Sometimes the difference between two words is so small that it’s almost impossible to spot it, especially when you are speaking. In some other cases, however, the difference is as obvious as it can possibly be, and it is that one word is real, while the other one isn’t. That’s exactly what happens with a lot and alot. Even though you can come across both these words in informal conversations and text messages, only one of them is correct. But which one is it?
Alot or A Lot
A LOT is a noun with an article that means “a big amount or number”, while ALOT isn’t a word at all.
Examples:
- The conference is going to be a lot of extra work.
- It was a fruitful meeting; we made a lot of important decisions.
- He’s got a lot of money but he doesn’t flaunt it.
- Supermarkets make a lot of profit on their own brand products.
Is It Alot or A Lot?
The reason why you shouldn’t spell a lot as one word is pretty obvious: as there are a separate article and a separate noun, there’s no need to combine them. You wouldn’t write “abook” or “adog” instead of “a book” and “a dog” respectively, would you?
So, whenever you need to say that there is a big amount of something, you need to spell a lot as two words. For example, you can say that your friend Caitlin reads a lot of books. If your brother has just drunk five cups of coffee, you can tell him that he drank a lot of coffee. Finally, you can think that there are a lot of very confusing pairs of words in the English language.
If you still aren’t completely sure about which word is correct, think about it this way: you can’t say alittle, can you? This is why, following the same logic, you need to say a lot, spelled as two (or “a lot of”) words.
Alot vs. A lot Examples
- My country has a lot of mountains.
- We have a lot of superstitions about animals.
- There were a lot of people on the bus this morning.
- Her parents are very liberal and allow her a lot of freedom.
- I’d been away for a few days so I had a lot of post waiting for me.
- A lot of firms are relocating to the North of England.
- I had a lot of interesting experiences during my year in Africa.
- He has a lot of talent, and his work is fresh and interesting.
- There’s a lot of work piled up on my desk.
- She lost a lot of blood in the accident.
Should You Use Alot or A Lot? | Picture
How to Use Alot or A Lot Correctly?
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