A discussion with hubby prompted this question: Is alot a word? He swears he’s seen it in published pieces.
Here’s the short answer: no. If you try to look up “alot” in the dictionary, you’ll get nothing. The proper way to say that a large bunch of something exists is to say “a lot.” So, starting now, strike it out of your blog posts and school papers. “Alot” doesn’t exist.
Along the same lines, alright isn’t necessarily proper either. According to Merriam-Webster, alright means all right, and but “some critics have insisted that all right is all wrong”. 🙂 It’s used more often in informal writing and fiction. So, use at your own risk.
And finally, awhile is another “a-word” surrounded by confusion and controversy. As I related in my post on awhile, there are three things to consider when using awhile vs a while:
- A while is a noun (hint: it’s got the article “a” in front of it); it suggests a specific period of time. If you can replace “awhile” with “a week”, then you should use “a while”. Example: It’s been a while since I’ve had a good burger.
- Awhile means “for a time”, and it’s an adverb. You should be able to replace “awhile” with another adverb, like “quickly”. Example: She ran awhile.
- If a while is used in a prepositional phrase, as in, “She ran for a while,” you use “a while” because the object of a preposition must be a noun, not an adverb (“awhile”).
Are there any other “a-words” that give you trouble? How about other words that have been contracted but perhaps shouldn’t be? I’d love some fodder for future posts.
Thanks for getting nerdy with me!
I knew about “a lot,” but I’m wondering if I use “awhile” incorrectly. I will never remember the rules, but hopefully I will remember to come back to your site to look it up the next time I want to use it!
Happy to be helpful to you, Dana. You’re a smart lady… I bet you’ll pick it up.
Whew, glad I don’t use “a lot” improperly. I’m always tossing “a while” and “awhile” around in my head, though, to figure out how I’m really using the word.
One of the fun parts of being a writer, huh? 😉
Love this stuff :). I remember discovering “alot” vs “a lot” and have never looked back! Even my phone autocorrects “a lot” if I try to make it one word. Happy weekend!
I’ve learned not to misuse ‘a lot,’ but there are still quite a few ‘awhile’s in my manuscripts that shouldn’t be there. Thanks for the tips!
You’re welcome. A while is a little more tricky than a lot!