a lotとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

(This etymology is missing または incomplete. Please add to it, または discuss it at the 語源 scriptorium.)

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /əˈlɒt/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈlɑt/
  • 韻: -ɒt
  • Homophone: allot

代名詞

a lot

1. A large amount.

   I have a lot of things to say.

2. Many things, much.

   A lot depends on whether your parents agree.

副詞

a lot (not comparable)

1. (informal) Very much; a great deal; to a large extent.
   • 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 72-3:

     Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.

   Thanks a lot for listening to me.

   It's a lot harder than it looks.

2. (informal) Often; frequently.

   I go swimming a lot.

同意語

• loads, tons, immensely

関連する語

名詞

alot (uncountable)

1. (nonstandard, proscribed) Alternative spelling of a lot
   • 2000, Teaching Secondary English, ed. Daniel Sheridan. [in a tenth-grade student's paper]

     There was alot of sex discrimination in the 60’s. For one thing there was no sports for girls and in alot of schools the female teachers were not allowed to get married or they could be fired. [1]

   • 2003, Matt Janacone, Three by the Sea [2]

     It was alot of lumber, alot of condos, and Joe did not know alot about either of them, only that it was alot of money; he hated to throw his money into something he did not know alot about.

   • 2005, Aphrodite Jones, Cruel Sacrifice [From the suicidal patient's own writing.] [3]

     She talked about death: “My philosophy on life is it could be alot better. Like I would’ve never gotten into this mess if I wouldn’t have tried to commit suicide. Actually I was just trying to make myself sick. But then again it could be alot worse! [...]”

使用する際の注意点

This spelling of "a lot" is frequent in informal writing but not generally accepted by arbiters of English usage. Others view it as a legitimate contraction. Some occurrences of alot in print may be typographical errors.

• 1993, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English calls alot “substandard” and notes that it is “increasingly found in informal correspondence and student writing” and “has as yet received no sanction in print except on the op-ed and sports pages.” [4] [5]
• 1996, The American Heritage Book of English Usage states that “alot is still considered an error in print” but notes that standard words have formed by fusion of the article with a noun, such as another and awhile, and suggests the possibility that alot may, like them, eventually enter standard usage. [6]
• 2004, Jack Lynch Guide to Grammar and Style (entry dated 2004) flatly states this to be a two-word expression. [7]
• 2004, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage also compares alot to awhile. It states alot to be “still regarded as nonstandard” and notes 50 appearances in the British National Corpus, “almost entirely from three sources: e-mail, TV autocue data, and TV newscripts.” It suggests that some usages of alot in typewritten use are to be considered merely typos of the standard a lot though its appearance in handwriting and typescript is “more significant, as the shadow of things to come.” [8]

参考

• lotta
• moreso

アナグラム

• ATOL, Alto, Toal, alto, alto-, atlo-, lota, talo-, tola