Houston, We Have A Problem...

Houston, we have a problem!

Growing up I had a hard time grasping the idea that the word "a lot" was actually TWO words. Through the years I had numerous red marks on my english papers where I had misspelled a lot as alot! There was always a long red line between the a and the lot showing me where the space should be. It wasn't until I took a college english class that I finally got it right.

On the first day of class the professor gave us a spelling test of the most commonly misspelled words in the english language. My first thought was how ridiculous. I'm in college now. I thought spelling tests were a thing of the past. When my paper was returned to me I was shocked! I had failed! The only two words I remember from that test are a lot and separate. I misspelled them as alot and seperate. Within a week I dropped the class but I have never misspelled those two words again!

Today when I see the word a lot spelled alot or used inappropriately as allot I break out in hives! I just want to grab the nearest eraser or click on the spell check and have it auto correct.

But Houston, we have a problem!

Today if you go to dictionary.com you'll get a definition for "alot". If you use spell check it will accept the spelling, "alot". One of the most commonly misspelled words in the english language has now become an accepted misspelling! When I looked up "alot" on dictionary.com the definition was: a.lot nonstandard spelling for "a lot": a great number or amount.

So because we've misspelled a word so often, we just change the spelling? We accept the misspelling as an alternative? Don't they know how hard it was for me to get it right the first time? I worked hard, really hard, twenty years to be exact, to get the spelling correct. How can they go and change it? Who decides this?

I wonder how many A's I would have received on my english papers if all of my "alots"had been counted as correct? Life would have been a lot less stressful if I hadn't had to worry so much over separating the a from the lot.

Social forms of communication, texting, emails, facebook etc....have started to dictate what is and isn't acceptable in the english language. Capitalization....gone. Punctuation....out the window. Some words shorten to mere letters (c, u,) or even numbers (2 instead of to, too or two). Will we see these on dictionary.com too? It's possible but I surely hope not.

I'm sure there are a few misspelled words in this blog and probably a lot of incorrect grammar, punctuation, etc. However, I can assure you that I have separated the a from the lot all the way through and I shall continue to do so regardless of what Webster and Dictionary.com say!