Monroe and DiMaggio, K-Fed and Britney, Brand and Perry, some partnerships should just never have happened. ‘Alot’ is one of those.
Compounding the two words ‘a’ and ‘lot’ is a something us pedants notice happening a lot. Perhaps it’s because they look quite nice and neat together. But the truth of the matter is, a lot is like any two-word phrase with the indefinite article (a) followed by a noun (lot). For instance, a dog, a pen, and a toupee. You’d never see atoupee compounded would you?
Let’s all agree to end this madness now, even if our predictive text doesn’t agree.