Ask HN: Lose vs. Loose | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Lose vs. Loose

2 pointsguynamedloren5 comments

I see the word "loose" mistakenly used in place of "lose" time and time again - even within the highly educated HN community. In my head, there is no correlation whatsoever between the two words, and I would never think to use one in place of the other. I'm wondering why this mistake is so common.

For those of you who are unfamiliar:

- If your tooth is wiggly, you could call it a "loose" tooth.

- If you're not performing well, you might "lose" your job.

- You do not "loose" a basketball game - you "lose" a basketball game

- As a result of your loss, you are a "loser", not a "looser" (haven't seen this but it's funny to think about).

And some quick definitions from dictionary.com:

- lose (verb) - to fail inadvertently to retain (something) in such a way that it cannot be immediately recovered

- loose (adjective) - free from anything that binds or restrains; not firm

Also, it may be worth mentioning that loose can be used as a verb (ie: to unfasten) or adverb, but it is still not okay to use it in place of "lose".

This drives me crazy! What's the deal?

It's helpful to educate people, as always. But, I used to care a lot more about such rules than I do now. I changed my mind for a couple of reasons.

First, English isn't native for everyone. Mistakes are made. In today's world, it's easy for people to move to another country, and easy to E-mail someone on the other side of the world, or read their web site. There's a very good chance that when you read something, it was written by a non-native speaker.

Second, I think the only mistakes that really matter are the ones that fundamentally change the meaning of a sentence and add ambiguity. As long as I can figure out what somebody means, and there's nothing else it could be, I think it's fine. I can't think of a sentence where it is equally likely that someone is "losing" or "loosing" something, so I know what was intended. On the other hand, if you say "three" and you meant "thirty", that's a problem because I'm not very likely to guess what you really meant.

1. Many HNers are not native English speakers.

2. Homophone typos are very common even among those who know the difference between the words. In addition, many people have learning disabilities related to processing the written/spoken word. (My wife, for example, is accustomed to reading and writing on a graduate level, but has a very difficult time with spelling common words)

3. Some people don't feel that it is worth the effort to spell correctly.

I am weary of the 'there' n 'their' mix-ups too. I sometimes feel too archaic making a fuss of all this. The Oatmeal comics makes me feel better though!

Someone has set the grammar police lose, but I fear that this is a battle they will loose.

^ That was on purpose.

In seriousness, I'm as baffled as you are.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

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