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"Alot" is not a word

Trivial, yes, but a pet peeve of mine. "A lot of people think 'alot' is a word that means a large quantity."

Permalink Reply by Michael Blue on December 2, 2008 at 11:13pm: It's "vernacular", lol!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by L nielsen on November 19, 2008 at 4:14am: I use alot alot! I'm sorry I hope you can forgive me. you are right It is incorrect but commonly understood by many. I'll try to mend my ways.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dan McPherson on November 19, 2008 at 6:30am: It's certainly true that there are people who care "a lot" more about grammar and diction than others. For some, as long as the idea being communicated is understood, the choice of syntax or any of the tools in the linguistic toolbox is secondary. For others, (like me) using the language poorly is like using a Crescent wrench to fix everything- it can sort of get the job done most of the time, but it will eventually damage what was meant to be repaired.

But that's way too serious a start! Language is fun for some of us, and I try not to get too hung up on writing or speaking perfectly because I still make lots of mistakes. (Come to think of it, that's a pretty good metaphor for Christian living, eh?)

My current pet language peeves are the media buzz-words "on the ground" and "going forward". In almost every case, the news person could simply leave those words out and the sentence would still make sense.

My favourite (note Canadian spelling) malapropism is one I heard in a news interview recently:
" Of course, the safety of our children is tantamount!"; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dale on November 19, 2008 at 7:30am: I worked at a company where all the execs used the phrase "going forward" constantly. Occasionally they would throw us off by saying "moving forward" instead.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Coxster on November 19, 2008 at 6:34am: your completely correct, supposably

Just kidding!

Jim Cox; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dan McPherson on November 20, 2008 at 7:24am: Heh heh... This reminds me of an excellent article by Bob Kilpatrick in Christian Musician magazine. He was writing about good songwriting by using examples of bad songwriting. Effective and fun to read- like, I'd never make a mist ache like that.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jaime on November 19, 2008 at 12:08pm: How about Double Negatives, I hear them all the time. "If people don't ask Jesus into their heart, nobobdy won't go to Heaven!" Does that mean they will?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Elman Authement on November 19, 2008 at 1:00pm: My spell checker fixed that problem with me a long time ago. Although my brain still wants to put the words together, I have had to force myself to do it as two words. Thanks alot Dale. :^); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Charles Wolff on November 19, 2008 at 1:31pm: Gee, wouldn't a good spell checker change it to "allot" ???

Double negatives... we should add that to the list of ways to write a bad worship song...

Charles; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Elman Authement on November 19, 2008 at 6:02pm: I just read a comment on CCLI TV about someone's song. They wrote, Love the song, I can feel His presents. Spell checker can't catch that. They spelled presents right.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Justin Kirkendall on December 3, 2008 at 7:09pm: presents! haha.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Justin Kirkendall on December 3, 2008 at 7:09pm: bahahah!
down in the country we get that alot

Jesus ain't never NOT going to leave your or forsake you

EEK!; ▶ Reply to This

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