Using the word loose as the word lose. Why?

[kwetu]

It seems so many on MN use loose in place of lose, I see it on here regularly. Could possibly understand if they had similar meanings..but they are not interchangeable in any way to my knowledge.

It is because there is only one letter difference and the words sound similar when spoken.

It is an unremarkable spelling mistake. I find it more weird so many posters can't control themselves and have to point it out!

Do the words ‘juice’ and ‘booze’ sound similar to your ear? 🤔

It irritates me too. I don't think they sound even remotely similar. They also have totally different meanings.

I guess it's just a spelling mistake, but people do seem totally convinced it is correct and it is frustrating.

I think j and b are less close in sound than l and l.

This is literally what this section of the site (Pedants' Corner) is for. It allows those of us who need to let off steam about this sort of thing to do so away from other threads.

At risk of being pedantic, I am aware this is Pedants' Corner. I was referring to the need posters have to comment elsewhere.

Maybe it's autocorrect, it's no worse than someone starting a sentence without the letter "I".

I think it’s a combination of only one letter difference and also the sound of the words. To me the ‘oo’ sound in ‘lose’ is longer than in ‘loose’ because the harder ‘s’ sound in loose stops the ‘oo’. Sorry I don’t know the phonetic alphabet.

Because the average reading age in England is 10. When you really think about that it is shocking. Many people don't read books or good quality written word any more so opportunities to learn correct spelling and grammar are missed.
My dc started school back in the 90s and I quickly realised that I would have to put a lot of time into teaching them to read and write. I was really lucky to have the time to do that. I volunteered as a reading assistant in the remedial group in years 5 and 6 and the majority of those children had no books in their homes.
I am sure things haven't improved.

Just a misspelling. It makes sense what they're doing if you try and align it with other spellings.

They want the oo sound at the start and the spelling 'loose' seems like it will represent that sound (and it does but we use it to mean 'loose' with an s sound at the end, not the z sound). Meanwhile, 'lose' is spelt similar to close/dose/chose/hose/nose/rose which have a completely different vowel sound (and either an s sound or z sound at the end).

I’ve just seen this on another thread and winced. It’s almost as aggravating as “bare” with me which is flippin’ everywhere on this site.

This seems a very disingenuous question - fair enough that it irritates you, but it's perfectly obvious why some people make the mistake.

Because their literacy level isn’t what it could be?

Loose/Lose and Bare/Bear are only beaten by Hence Why in my personal hierarchy of irritations.

It’s all over Mumsnet and in my opinion is inexcusable.

I am quite shocked by seemingly intelligent users now using this. I’ve been on Mumsnet since 2006 and have only just noticed this recently.

I’m taking this opportunity to share that I knew someone who lived in the village of Loose in Kent and belonged to the WI there. It meant she was a member of the Loose Women’s Institute which always sounded like it would be more fun than the other WI’s.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5288894-ive-reported-my-friend-for-an-nhs-confidentiality-breech?latest=1

This thread is full of them.

It's the one that irritates me the most too. I used to have to mark undergraduate essays that were rife with it. And the thread I just read had multiple users making this mistake. I'd never point it out but it makes me wince every time!

But this brilliantly rational and clear explanation has eased my irritation and I'll be more compassionate to the lose/loose challenged on here going forward! So thank you @RickiRaccoon

My boss is a reader. She's educated to post-graduate level, runs a book club, and always has a good quality novel or two in her bag, so is immersed in the written word daily.
She always writes "loose" for "lose", as if she thinks there is just one word with two meanings.
More gratingly, she invariably places a space in front of every comma and full stop, but no space after the punctuation mark.
To indicate a pause, she flings in a line of commas, perhaps up to six of them.
We are currently updating our website, and she is insisting on having the last word on editing.
Do you think that she has somehow not noticed that nobody else punctuates sentences like she does? How the fuck has it never dawned on her? Or does she perhaps think that everyone else is wrong?
I am dreading the final draft of the website.

No one muddles up noose and nose, so it's not the typo or 'one letter' thing

No, because noose and nose have the ‘right’ pronunciation for the number of os. Whereas lose, as pointed out before, sounds like it should have more os than loose

Because it gives a reason for people to complain?

I rarely see the word ‘led’. As in ‘he led the dog by a lead when he went to buy some lead pencils’.

I can see how confusing it can be, but I can’t help noticing when ‘lead’ is used in place of ‘led’ just as I notice the replacement of ‘lose’ with ‘loose’.

Loose is one of the more logical mistakes I see here. 'Can I use your loo?' - same pronunciation.

The part I don't get is as PP said, never ever realising it's wrong and correcting it permanently. I have good SPAG generally but always, always struggle with the spelling of privilege. Even now it looks wrong. But I make a conscious effort to check it rather than just randomly guessing with rogue 'e's and 'd's all over the place

I also find myself (infuriatingly) questioning the use of 'myself' because misuse of the reflexive is so prevalent, even in the workplace. People are under the mistaken impression it makes them sound more formal when actually they just look stupid. But then I type something and I'm like, wait... is it 'myself' or 'me'?? And I have to look up the rule again. Maybe this is how it happens - 'loose' is so often used that people skim over their mistake and think that's how they've often seen it so it must be right?

I suppose it's because of the way "choose" is pronounced. But yes, "loose" instead of "lose" is one of the most frequent internet mis-spellings.