Loosing my mind....!

[pjmama]

Everywhere I look these days I see the word "lose" being spelt "loose" - which as anyone with the vaguest grasp of spelling know means something entirely different!! What is happening to the English language..?!

It has gone to hell in a hand-basket.

What with 'text speak' and gang culture, I reckon that at least a third of the people in this country are 'functionally illiterate' - maybe more.

well I'm not particularly young and I've always struggled to get lose/loose right

I am very relaxed about spelling but I have to say that loose makes my teeth ache for some reason.

FAQ, I think a lot of people do because of the pronunciation of loose/lose and choose/chose, and it's for this reason, shona, that it doesn't annoy me as much as they're/there/their,your/you're and its/it's. Unfortunately English doesn't have very consistent pronunciation rules unlike other languages (French and Dutch being two of them). It makes tutoring English difficult, I can tell you!

That said, I do agree with cattj that the English language (well at least spelling and grammar) has gone to hell in a hand-basket!

Thank you for pointing this out.
It drives me mad too.
I want to scream 'IT'S LOSE NOT LOOSE.'
Arghhhhhh.

• hadn't realised how much it bothered me until I started typing.