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.

I get this. I am very interested in etymology, accents, and language in general but it also grates on the nerves when reading a thread with the constant use of loose for lose (as an example). I just think it is healthy to have the Pedants’ Corner to vent rather than call it out on a thread. The OP of this thread was right to vent here rather than call out people on another thread.

Haven't read the whole thread so this may have been said already:

Because oo can be pronounced as in book or as in moon. Whereas lose should technically be pronounced as lows (following common phonetic rules). So it's natural people spell both meanings with a double oo.

Yes, but adults should be able to rise above such things. It gets easier with practice and good manners are more important than good spelling.

Any alleged discomfort around spelling is the problem of the person feeling it, because a misspelt word causes no actual harm. It is helpful to practice regulating emotional responses.

I think it's really unhealthy to be calling people thick, uneducated, unintelligent, lazy etc. That's not an interest in language, that's an excuse to be appalling towards other people.

The question in the OP was silly.

Maybe they are dyslexic. Maybe they weren't given a good education. Maybe they don't care. Maybe English isn't their first language. Maybe it's because English is an awkward language to learn. Lose, use, ooze all rhyme and are spelt differently. Ooze has an "oo" sound which is probably why a lot of people get it mixed up (lose/ ooze). Maybe it's an autocorrect error. Personally, I have to really think about how to spell them both and I get it wrong sometimes. Crazy how clever people can't understand how people can get spellings wrong!

All of the above is true but if people are never corrected they will never know the correct spelling.

It's incredibly rude to correct, it's not your job to correct strangers.

Good manners are more important than good spelling.

Correcting people can prevent them from continuing to make a fool of themselves.

@CaptainMyCaptain All of the above is true but if people are never corrected they will never know the correct spelling.

Absolutely, especially if they are interested in learning. But I thought the OP was trying to understand why they get mis-spelled. For me it's the "oo" so my brain thinks loose is lose. I have to think very hard to get it right.

I'm astounded to find that boarder and border should sound the same! I have an English accent and they sound different when I say them, however I had Scottish parents so maybe that's it.

I just assume a typo and the meaning is usually clear, unless it's a lost dog as that could go either way. "Loose" is also the verb to describe when an archer releases their arrow, so you could use it to say that a dog was released from its leash.

Jo

I disagree.
In personal interactions, good manners are important. When reading something, the spelling and grammar are important.

Poor spelling and grammar interrupt the flow, snag the reader’s eye. They can make meaning obscure or incomprehensible at worst, but even at their least troublesome they throw a stumbling block in the path of a reader to disrupt the sense.

If we’re communicating through the written word, making an effort to do so well is up there with correct choice of words.

If you are getting it wrong and no one tells you, how do you improve your writing? I appreciate learning. Being reprimanded by an anonymous person online for getting it wrong is mildly embarrassing but means I’m less likely to make that particular mistake again.

And if you write books and make an error and your editor also misses it, you can GUARANTEE that readers will point it out in every single review. Because if you, the author, don't care enough about your writing to make sure that everything is spelled correctly (and incorrect spellings can change the entire meaning of a sentence and make it misleading or unintelligible) then why should the reader?

And that should translate into all walks of life.

I think it is acceptable on a forum like this to point out spelling mistakes. I would prefer someone telling me than carrying on and looking like a fool in a presentation to many people.

Precisely. It's an anonymous forum it's not likely that posters are going to be embarrassed bumping into each other.

@Vroomfondleswaistcoat It amazes me when a good author and all at the publishers miss something. Read a really good book to my dd recently about children lost in the jungle, famous author, ton of awards. She'd used slither instead of sliver. How did NO-ONE know that was the wrong word?

She had a sliver of cake in the jungle?
Or did a snake slither by? I don't know the book but can't think how sliver would be more appropriate.

They do lose a lot of arrows too.

Maybe it's because 'lose' uses a long oo sound (like 'goose') rather than the short o you find in 'hose' or 'those'?

In one novel I read, on the very first page, a woman 'poured' over a book.

That sounds disgusting.

A fool of themselves? Should this be fools of themselves? 🤔

The poor grasp of written (and often, spoken) English these days is almost omnipresent. While some of the blame can be laid at the doors of autocorrect, technology and so-called text speak, I believe incuriosity plays a large part; a lot of people are intellectually lazy and lack the will to investigate correct spelling or usage, if they even notice it at all.

Loose is an adjective- a describing word.
Lose is a verb - a doing word.

My shoes are loose.
I told my son not to lose his coat.

It's fairly basic grammar.

I have seen "loose" used as a verb, although it's probably a bit archaic now. "George loosed her hold on Timmy's collar."

And as for the often-quoted "drawers" - isn't "drawers" a rude word anyway, as in the Flanders and Swann song "Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers"?

"Let's write rude words all down our street,
Stick out our tongues at the people we meet:
Let's have an intellectual treat -
Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers!"

Because people will talk about a slim slice of something as being a 'slither'. As in 'would you like a slice of cake? Oh, just a little piece, just a slither'. I've seen it frequently.
And sometimes editors just ...aren't very well read. I had an immensely long discussion with mine about 'another think coming' (which I used and which she tried to correct to 'another thing coming'. Turned out to be the hill I would die on).