I saw this in a comment at EngadgetMobile.com.
Problem:
The word “alot” — spelled A-L-O-T — is a nonsense word.
Explanation:
The comment writer was referring to cell-phone functions that he uses often, not a little.
So he should have written “a lot” — spelled A-space-L-O-T — instead.
The two-word, adverbial phrase “a lot” means to a great extent or degree.
For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks to avoid hyphenated forms) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:
- “a lot” — with a space after the letter “a” — 640,000,000 matches
- “alot” — with no space — 129,000,000 matches
This tells me that Web authors have written the adverbial phrase correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 4.96-to-1, which is dreadful.
Note: The adverbial phrase “a lot” should not be confused with the verb “allot” — spelled A-L-L-O-T — which means to apportion, to appropriate, or to dedicate.
Solution:
“… all of which I use a lot, …” — with a space between the indirect article “a” and the noun “lot”