We often read or hear sentences such as ‘the police eliminated the narcotics gangsters altogether’, ‘The choir practised for Christmas a lot’, or ‘Everything seems alright’, or ‘The kids were in it altogether’.
For those of you who grew up in the internet age, these sentences may seem perfectly normal. In fact, these phrases are common in everyday parlance, as well as in blog posts, tweets, and Facebook posts. However, of these four sentences, two are correct and two are wrong. Which ones are wrong? The first and fourth are wrong and the first and third are correct. Why and how is this so? In formal writing, standard usage must be followed.
We will address the question of how below. In this post, we will look at the correct way of writing altogether/all together, alright/all right, and alot/a lot.
Altogether vs all together
Altogether and all together are assumed to be the same word with different spellings. This could not be further from the truth.
Altogether is an adverb. It means ‘taken as a whole’ and is synonymous with completely, wholly, or totally. Let us understand with the help of some examples.
He was altogether happy with Veronica and the kids.
She was altogether tired of her marriage with Ben and was looking for an escape.
We can make out that the word altogether is simply a replacement word for completely or totally.
Now let us look at the phrase all together.
The phrase means ‘at the same place’ or ‘at the same time as a complete group’. See the following
examples.
The heads of the five families were all together at the funeral.
The rocket, firecrackers, and the lights were lighted all together.
A lot vs alot
A lot is a phrase that signifies many or abundant. Alot is the same word, spelled incorrectly.
Ever since the internet age (and likely before), alot has been used extensively in blogs, Facebook posts, and elsewhere. However, this is informal lingo and has no place in formal writing. When you write a cover letter or a research paper, it may be best to avoid the phrase altogether, and use words like several, many, or numerous.
Another word that is constantly confused with these words is allot, which means to apportion by shares and has nothing to do with the other two words.
Let us understand through a couple of examples.
The tribes were allotted one acre of land by the Nepali Government.
In this example, we can clearly see that one acre of land was distributed to the tribes.
The children were allotted counselling sessions between 6 pm and 8 pm on Thursday.
In this example, we can clearly see that the counselling sessions were arranged for the children between 6 and 8 pm on Thursday.
Alright vs all right
All right is a phrase that is used to denote satisfaction or sufficiency. Alright is the incorrectly spelled version of the same.
While altogether and other ‘Al words’ have been in common usage for some time, alright became part of mainstream vocabulary only in the 1970s and hence has not become part of formal dictionaries.
The next time you encounter the word alright or are tempted to use it in formal writing, know that it is currently running afoul of the standards of academic writing.
Whenever you are confronted with a situation where you do not know which word to use, always check research papers on google scholar for the word or other websites specializing in formal writing. If you would like to know more about other confusing words, please contact me.