Writing a Lot
I'm afraid that a lot is eventually going to become alot.
Like many of you, I run into this mistake far too often. Not only do people speak it as one word (spoken and written English have always maintained an agreed upon and understandable discrepancy), but a frightening minority of them write it as one word. And another undetermined percentage are being saved by spell-check. (Which my newest, but not brand new, Random House indicates is hyphenated.)
Eventually "spell-check" is likely to become one word, "spellcheck." In the meantime it's evolving; it's engaged in the process of transformation which accompanies written language and is necessitated by a changing society. I can handle that when it comes to spell-check. I might even acquiesce if it comes to who verses whom. If the language evolves naturally and in some sort of semi-sane fashion, so be it.
A lot has never been a-lot. Sorry, but it hasn't.
It's certainly not one word: alot. I cringe to type it. Twice now, I've cringed.
Yet is this abhorrence inevitable? I see it in advertising and on posters. You can even find it in newspapers occasionally. Students, more often than not, write it as "alot." Evidently our high schools are producing malfunctioning spell-checkers. And I hate to say it but those students are the ones who'll be doing all the writing, once we're dead, although some may not realize it yet.
And here I am shaking my head. I'm thinking, "how could this happen?" I'm thinking, "this one's easy!" But all around us people are writing alot.
(R Woerheide)
Like many of you, I run into this mistake far too often. Not only do people speak it as one word (spoken and written English have always maintained an agreed upon and understandable discrepancy), but a frightening minority of them write it as one word. And another undetermined percentage are being saved by spell-check. (Which my newest, but not brand new, Random House indicates is hyphenated.)
Eventually "spell-check" is likely to become one word, "spellcheck." In the meantime it's evolving; it's engaged in the process of transformation which accompanies written language and is necessitated by a changing society. I can handle that when it comes to spell-check. I might even acquiesce if it comes to who verses whom. If the language evolves naturally and in some sort of semi-sane fashion, so be it.
A lot has never been a-lot. Sorry, but it hasn't.
It's certainly not one word: alot. I cringe to type it. Twice now, I've cringed.
Yet is this abhorrence inevitable? I see it in advertising and on posters. You can even find it in newspapers occasionally. Students, more often than not, write it as "alot." Evidently our high schools are producing malfunctioning spell-checkers. And I hate to say it but those students are the ones who'll be doing all the writing, once we're dead, although some may not realize it yet.
And here I am shaking my head. I'm thinking, "how could this happen?" I'm thinking, "this one's easy!" But all around us people are writing alot.
(R Woerheide)
posted by Robert Woerheide at 8:48 PM
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1 Comments:
Once language stops changing, it becomes dead.
As English is my preferred written medium, I'm glad the signs of vibrant life are there.
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