to post this spelling correction? LOSE to mean the loss of something

[Horsie]

I'm on a public-service mission to correct one of the world's most common misspellings. I've seen it thousands and thousands of times online. I think it must be the most misspelt word in the world. Saw it twice today just on Mumsnet.

No shade AT ALL. I literally want to help people look better in writing.

Here goes:

To lose something is spelt LOSE and not loose. Loose only ever means not tight, or to let something go, like a horse. I turned my horse loose. I hope I never lose him.

I'm losing the will to live.
I always lose competitions.
That person is a loser.

My jeans are loose.
My ring goes loosely over my knuckle.
I'm a loser wearing loose jeans.
I always lose my ring in the pool because it becomes loose.

I never realised how commonly this word was misspelt until the internet. I suppose because "lose" does sound like a double "O" with its oooo sound (as opposed to rhyming with hose). That's probably where the confusion comes in, and the wrong spelling is being perpetuated millions and millions of times because of the internet.

I wish someone like JK Rowling with a huge reach would tweet the correct spellings, as a public service. No one likes to look bad in writing.

So there you have it, folks. Write it down a hundred times.

Lose
Lose
Lose
Lose

LOOSE

I agree with you. It drives me mad and you see if everywhere nowadays spelt wrong.
I am on a few weight loss groups, and the amount of people who ask about loosing weight is really annoying. You lose weight, not loose. They mean very different things.

Unfortunately I feel it is here to stay as it is now so widespread.

How much education do you need to be able to spell lose and loose correctly? Not much. Your lazy thinking brings about unintelligible writing which helps no one, least of all those in need. Education is NEVER a bad thing.

I love your little ditty to help people remember. Are you a teacher? If not - sign up now! Failing that - you could start up a business making posters for classrooms. Here are some other common misconceptions to get you going:
Specific / Pacific
Accept / Except
Effect / Affect
Present / Presence
desert / dessert

Good luck OP 😃

Whoops 🤣

@Ratafia you probably meant Murphy's Law😂

How about "my grammar and punctuation are not good" instead? 🤦‍♀️

She didn’t. That’s the whole point.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law

I want it to stop if only because when people post 'I'm going to loose my shit' or 'I'll loose my shit' it conjures up disturbing inages in my head, especially around mealtimes.

I've even seen 'I'm loosing my shit!' in real-time.

I actually have to think about this every time I write it because I often feel compelled to write loose when I mean lose. Loose looks so much more appropriate for the word in my head, even though it's wrong.

From now on, Emily Brontë will be Omelette Roulette in my head. 😁

I agree wholeheartedly with your mission by the way @Horsie .

I spend a lot of my time explaining this to people (I'm an English/MFL tutor) and I'm going to steal your "I had to lay down" example – love it!

This is very often mistaught in schools, unfortunately, if my students' experience is anything to go by. I think we need a whole series of public service announcements, ideally.

tbh I rarely see misspellings nowadays since phones have auto-suggest etc. The internet in the mid 2000s or so would increase your bloodpressure though if you don't like bad spelling

It's a curse of our moden times that so many people routinely play fast and lose with spelling and grammar.

I don't even think it's somethinthat f most people actively chose to do.

Now, whilst that almost certainly was a monumental (see what I did there?!) cock-up from the past, I think you could potentially (tenuously) argue that they were correct - if they saw it more that they were being forced to release their loved one to the afterlife, rather than focusing on their own loss?!

And there, thanks to auto-incorrect and/or fat fingers, I too fell victim to Muphry's Law

Thanks OP. I see this all the time and it drives me mad. It’s so ridiculous to claim mistakes like this have anything to do with privilege. My dad was from an immigrant background and left school at 16. He wrote perfectly, probably because he read a lot. The problem is people no longer read books. Reading is the best way to absorb the English language.

One that bugs me is, "Me and DP are doing/going..." It's "DP and I".

I cant vote because you used the phrase 'no shade' which is unreasonable

But yes I agree with you. I also dont agree that people shouldnt correct others spelling and grammar on forums (dont bother raising my lack of apostrophes, I dont use them) because then no one learns.

Thank you so much for this post. Until I came onto Mumsnet, I'd never actually seen this spelled incorrectly but - my goodness - it's ubiquitous on here. Baffling!

It is distracting.

How about que instead of cue? I find that’s the worst one as I then have Manuel shouting in my head.

Need one for allowed v aloud

Its an easy one to do as a typo because autocorrect doesn't pick up on it.

And my dyslexic DD can't see a difference in the words even though she knows there is a difference.

She just loves threads and comments that make out she is stupid for getting it wrong. 🙁

I agree completely. I hate bad spelling and grammar. I must admit I have not seen the loose/lose one before but no doubt I will see it all the time now 😹
For me the worst one is bored of instead of bored with, that really annoys me. Especially when I see it in a book, I mean really, if you an author you should know better!
Obviously if you are dyslexic that is a completely different matter