subject: Loose vs. Lose: English Grammar Made in Hell [print this page] Loose vs. Lose: English Grammar Made in HellLoose vs. Lose: English Grammar Made in Hell
Before the start of this decade, people were doing fine distinguishing the difference between loose and lose. However, for some reason, by the start of the oughts, people were loosely using loose and lose interchangeably. Which was all fine if they were doing it unintentionally, i.e., a typo. However, consistently using either incorrectly rather proves that people just don't know the difference between losing your marbles and letting loose your inhibitions anymore. English grammar it seemed had gone straight to hell the moment Y2K was over.
To help those too loose with these two words, here's a few ways to remember which one to use in a sentence.
If you start saying to your wife, "I don't want to loose you," chances are you will lose her if she is in any way an English grammar Nazi. You lose your car keys, you don't loose it. You can lose your inhibitions, but you can also let loose of your inhibitions. You can wear loose clothing, but that doesn't in any way make you a loser.
Use loose if you want to release, undo, detach, let fly something. Use lose if you want to refer to missing something or to the act of being defeated.
You can have loose change in your pockets, but you can also lose that change.
Lose is a verb, while loose can be a number of things; an adjective, an adverb, a verb, even an idiom. You can let your dog loose from time to time, but you can't let her lose her name tag lest you never find her if she does get lost.
On this same vein, loss and lost are also losing their meaning over time. Is this some kind of virus sweeping the entire world? Humankind it seems is destined, nay, determined to lose its sense of, well, grammatical sense.
Who in their right mind would say, "I'm sorry for your lost," instead of "I'm sorry for your loss?" But yeah, people are being born every minute who will soon say those words.
If you are one of the many who keep on calling your enemies "looser," perhaps you should stop and take a look at yourself and ask who the real loser is.
Perhaps it's in the kool-aid people drink today. Or perhaps humankind is just simply losing it. Whatever it is, loosing and losing are starting to be the same. Before the line gets blurred and the difference is forgotten, here's one last hurrah for lose and loose used correctly.
The world would forever be different, losing the true meaning of loose and lose, but perhaps it is meant to be. English grammar Nazis are not only a dying breed; they're also fighting a losing battle. If in the future, lose and loose mean the same thing, only those who cared would really have lost anything. The "loosers" won't lose any sleep over it, and the true losers won't know the difference anyway. Let those who care reminisce that once upon a time being a loser meant losing and being looser meant being more relaxed.
