Alot / Allot / A Lot

The non-word “alot” has an amazingly strong hold on many writers, even with spellcheckers separating the two parts of it.

I will bet that some writers override their spellchecker, pulling those four letters back together, muttering something like “Stupid program! It doesn’t even know that I want one word, not two!”

No. Really. You do not want it to ever be one word.

Alot = NOT a real word
A lot = many, much, numerous
Allot = to distribute portions

We wouldn’t write “I have abunch of bananas,” would we? So why do so many of us think it’s OK to write “I have alot of bananas”? 

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