Grammar 101: Loose and Lose

byphil1944

8.5K followers

Updated 2 years ago

Grammar 101: Loose and Lose

Previously:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/phil1944/blog/feeling-youre-...

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/phil1944/blog/grammar-101-it...

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/phil1944/blog/grammar-101-yo...

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/phil1944/blog/grammar-101-th...

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/phil1944/blog/grammar-101-tw...

A Few Simple Rules Are All You Need

There's no doubt that, in its entirety, English grammar is complex, especially for someone learning English as a second language.

But...

If you're a native English speaker and just want to avoid common grammatical errors in your writing (such as blog posts on your website) there are only a handful of rules that you need to memorize.

So this series of posts is for those who'd like to ditch the Grammarly crutch and just know what's right and what's not.

Here's the fifth one:

Loose and Lose

Not so much a grammar issue as one of spelling and pronunciation, this one is so common that I thought it was worth including.

The most common misuse is "loose" when it should be "lose".

"Loose" means "not tight" or "not confined". Examples are "this knot is loose" or "the goats are loose in the field".

It's the pronunciation that tricks people. "Loose" rhymes with "moose", so just remember (and visualize) the phrase "the moose is loose" and you should be ok.

"Lose", on the other hand, results in something being lost. For example, "Did you lose your wallet? Yes, I lost my wallet."

Again, it's the pronunciation. "Lose" rhymes with "snooze", so just remember (and visualize) the phrase "if you snooze, you lose" and you should be ok.

I hope this has helped.