homonyms

The Difference Between Alot, A Lot and Allot

Since there is such a lot of confusion about homonyms (words that are pronounced in the same way but spelled differently such as wether, weather and whether), it’s time to allot the task of explaining this trio to you. That last sentence may already have explained the difference between ‘allot’ and ‘a lot’ quite economically, but let’s have some fun with our words and also get around to ‘alot’.

Spoken and Informal English

When we speak, we seldom think about the individual words we use as much as we think about the phrases. So when you say “How are you?’ you probably chose the whole phrase out of your mental linguistic archives rather than thinking about every word. It’s almost as if your brain sees the phrase as a word in itself.

When we say phrases like this, we often run the words together so that they almost sound like one word, and that’s where a lot of English errors have their origin.

Is “Alot” a Word?

When we use English to write informally, we sometimes lump words together, even when they don’t really belong together. ‘Alot’ is one of these, and under current English rules, it’s really incorrect. People use it to say ‘a lot’, and although some argue that the contraction without the space isn’t a big deal and may be accepted as correct English at some time in the future, it isn’t correct today.

If ‘alot’ does ever become an accepted form, it will be strictly informal. Other ‘lumped together’ words that are accepted in informal writing are ‘gonna’ and ‘wanna’, but you definitely won’t be using them in a business letter or school assignment.

To avoid confusing your friends, ‘a lot’ is definitely the way to go, and it means exactly the same thing – it’s the opposite of ‘a little bit’. So I hope you have learned a lot already, and that you won’t be using ‘alot’ in future.

What Does “Allot” Mean?

Returning to our introduction, I said “it’s time to allot the task of explaining this trio to you” So obviously, I am using the word to describe giving a task. I could also say: “Reading my essay on How to Write a College Admissions Essay is your allotted task for today.” Or I might say “I am allotting you the task of…,” or “I allot you the task of…”

So I can use the word “allot” to share out tasks or work. I could also use it to describe something else that we’ll share: “Of the $50 we earned at our lemonade stand, I’ll allot $10 to you for your help”. It’s possible I’m being a little greedy with my profits and keeping the lion’s share, but at least I am sharing. “Allot” is a verb, but it can be turned into a noun, by adding “ment” to the end. Now we have a noun describing a thing that is shared, so an “allotment” is usually someone’s piece of a shared item such as a piece of land that has been shared between several people. An easy trick to remembering this is that “allot” indicates some kind of sharing, and sharing requires at least two people — “allot” has two ‘l’s’.

“Allot” is quite a formal word, so you’d usually use the word “share” when you’re talking to friends about dividing up a pizza or the costs of a fun trip. It’s also perfectly correct to use “share” in most formal contexts, so if you’re not quite sure about when it would be appropriate to use “allot” use “share” instead, and you can’t really go wrong.

Spell Check Pitfalls

My computer doesn’t like it when I use ‘alot’. Every time I type it, auto correct shoves the space in there, and I have to go back and fix it. Once I’ve done that, spell check underlines it in red showing me that it’s a mistake. But if I were to type the word “allot” and drop one of the ‘l’s’ by accident, it would do exactly the same thing. I’d mean “allot” but get “a lot”, and there’d be no indication from spell check that my work contained any mistakes to speak of. That’s just one example that illustrates the need for careful proofreading – even when you have spell check to help you.

(Photo courtesy of Linas V)

The Difference Between Wether, Weather, and Whether

You look at the page and see three words: weather, whether and wether. Although none of these three words is spelled the same, they all sound the same when you say them. They’re classed as homonyms. They have the same pronunciation but different meanings. It’s easy to confuse them, and it’s easy to write one word when you really want to use another (this is more common than you think in English such as with on to and onto, and it can happen even with words that aren’t homonyms like further and farther. How can you tell the difference?

Wether: something you never knew about sheep

First, “wether” is hardly ever used, so you can almost forget about it, but it’s still good to know its meaning. Yes, some people might write it by accident instead of “whether” or even “weather” but it means something completely different than both those words. Actually, a wether is a male sheep or goat that’s had a particularly sensitive operation in the groin area we won’t explain in detail here. It’s only farmers and animal experts who usually need to know and use this word.

Weather: just look out the window

People everywhere love to complain about the weather no matter if it’s the rain, the wind, the sun, or a combination of all of these. Weather is the state of the natural environment in a place at a particular time. Cold weather comes with winter, and hot or warm weather arrives in summer.

Of course, the northern hemisphere has winter at the same time that the south has summer. This means that different seasons actually occur at the same time in different places, not just different weather. This is where weather becomes a little confusing, but you don’t need to worry about this. Just understand what the word means. When it starts with “we,” it’s talking about the natural conditions that “we” experience.

Whether: to be or not to be

On the other hand, “whether” has absolutely nothing to do with sheep or how it is outside. This word is normally used as a conjunction. “And” is a conjunction. So is “or.” Consider this sentence:

“Whether we go to the moon or not, we will think it’s beautiful.”

It’s almost the same as saying:

“If we go to the moon, or if we stay on Earth, we will think the moon is beautiful.”

So “whether” is very much like “if.” And you can see that you have two choices. One is fabulous: you can visit the moon. This means you’re either an astronaut or a billionaire with your own private space vehicle. If that’s so, you can stop reading this right now and do all the important things you have on your schedule today. The second choice is a lot duller: to stay home. However, both choices allow you to appreciate the lunar beauty, so we have two happy endings.

A variation of this occurs in the following sentence:

“I don’t know whether I can pass astronaut training school.”

There is just one situation stated here: to pass. You can either pass or fail, so you have two choices, but the “pass” option is the only one stated. In the first sentence, you can either go or not go, and that’s two choices as well, but both are clearly stated.

And if you want to pass astronaut school, we recommend a lot more advanced math and science in addition to English. You also need to be athletic, healthy, smart, dedicated, lucky… But anything’s possible.

Language keeps changing – whether you like it or not

“Whether” also used to be a pronoun that meant the same as “which” or “whichever.” For example:

“Whichever you buy, the Rolls-Royce or the Cadillac, you’ll have a great car” can also be stated “”Whether you buy the Rolls-Royce or the Cadillac, you’ll have a great car.”

Now, these are not personal pronouns like “I” or “you.” There are quite a few types of pronouns, but they all have this in common: they replace nouns or refer to nouns. So in the sentence above, “whichever” refers to “Cadillac” and “Rolls-Royce.” Since “whether” is not really used as a pronoun these days, you don’t need to remember this definition. Just think “if” any time you see “whether,” and you’ll be on the right track.

Whatever the weather you’ll know whether you’re right

Knowing what the weather will do next isn’t easy, but knowing whether you should use one homonym or another is just a little memory game. As for the sheep, most people wouldn’t know what you were talking about anyway, so just call them ‘sheep’ and you’ll be doing just fine.

(Photo courtesy of Roberto Verzo)