Lose vs Loose

[The_Train]

Surely in a lot of cases things like people putting 'lose' instead of 'loose' or 'quite' instead of 'quiet' and vice versa are just simple spelling errors or typos as opposed to a person not understanding the correct use of the words. And then things like saying 'should of' instead of 'should have' could be down to the area dialect spoken by a person.

The reality is that the human brain is clever enough to read these errors and actually correct them to ensure a sentence is understood. So if someone wrote 'the ground is a bit lose over there', the vast majority of people would understand that to have meant 'loose'.

Another aspect to consider is the fact that the English language is changing because of technology. I've quickly typed this post out on my phone and it would have been littered with spelling mistakes if it wasn't for auto correct so why would I need to learn the correct spelling when my phone does it for me? It even offers me suggestions as to what the next word of my sentence should be. It's actually my belief that in centuries to come humans will start to lose the ability to speak as it will become less and less of a requirement to survive a day

 

[43096]

I've just spotted another one that really irks me in a recent post on this forum - "of" instead of "have" as in "I should have...".

Don't start me on that one! Anyone using "of" instead of "have" is just betraying themselves as an uneducated simpleton.

Then there's abbreviations that have a superfluous word added to them e.g. TSB Bank, PIN Number, DB Bahn.

And before anyone shouts "Pedant!", I'll point out that a pedant is what accurate people are called by those with low standards.

 

[The Lad]

Break vs brake (as in to stop) although I suspect that may be a old English usage.

 

[The_Train]

Break vs brake (as in to stop) although I suspect that may be a old English usage.

I kind of get this error to be fair. If you take a break you stop what you're doing and if you brake in a car you come to a stop as well. Very similar in my humble opinion

 

[GB]

Don't start me on that one! Anyone using "of" instead of "have" is just betraying themselves as an uneducated simpleton.

Your use of the word betraying makes little sense to me there. Portraying would have made more sense (to me) but as this is an informal social forum who really cares!

 

[43096]

Your use of the word betraying makes little sense to me there. Portraying would have made more sense (to me) but as this is an informal social forum who really cares!

Good point, well made!

 

[DarloRich]

being a dyslexic I don't really see any problem here............

 

[DaleCooper]

being a dyslexic I don't really see any problem here............

Ironically your post is not one of the many in this thread with spelling errors (although it should have started with a capital "B").

 

[The_Train]

Have I missed the joke here and this is actually a tongue in cheek thread or are you all being serious about these things that bother you?

I really hope it's the former

 

[DarloRich]

Ironically your post is not one of the many in this thread with spelling errors (although it should have started with a capital "B").

in fairness that is just laziness!

 

[Robin Edwards]

Do modern schools teach spelling or correct English grammar ?.

I don't think we should just look to whether the schools was good, bad or indifferent.
The ethic I have driven into my children is to take responsibility for their own education and not to blame others. Reading books from a young age is a recipe for good reading, writing & spelling practice. I also impress that our education should only stop when we die, not when leaving school.

 

[DaleCooper]

Have I missed the joke here and this is actually a tongue in cheek thread or are you all being serious about these things that bother you?

Hoo nose? Yule haff two deeside fore ure selph.

 

[The_Train]

Hoo nose? Yule haff two deeside fore ure selph.

OMG! Thatz sooooooooo annoying

 

[Geezertronic]

Their
They're
There

Must be pacific about which one to use

Joke intended...

 

[DarloRich]

Ironically your post is not one of the many in this thread with spelling errors (although it should have started with a capital "B").

I really struggle with words like form or from, convent or convert, affect or effect, James's or James' and accept and except. I have my own hard learned work around's but sometimes they still sneak through. I find it much harder on screen to pick them up. Sometimes I have to say something like the dog belonging to James if I cant remember how to say James's dog!

My maths is even worse!

 

[Cowley]

I really struggle with words like form or from, convent or convert, affect or effect, James's or James' and accept and except. I have my own hard learned work around's but sometimes they still sneak through. I find it much harder on screen to pick them up. Sometimes I have to say something like the dog belonging to James if I cant remember how to say James's dog!

My maths is even worse!

Do you generally use a normal keyboard to write out your posts? Because you do a lot of writing on here and although occasionally there’s the odd mistake (like the ones you’ve listed above), it’s mostly spot on.
I do virtually everything on my iPhone and use the predictive text function, which although it’s useful (and quicker than writing it letter by letter as I can’t type), has not done my spelling any favours at all as I only have to tap the first few letters and the word pops up.

 

[DarloRich]

Do you generally use a normal keyboard to write out your posts? Because you do a lot of writing on here and although occasionally there’s the odd mistake (like the ones you’ve listed above), it’s mostly spot on.
I do virtually everything on my iPhone and use the predictive text function, which although it’s useful (and quicker than writing it letter by letter as I can’t type), has not done my spelling any favours at all as I only have to tap the first few letters and the word pops up.

I use a normal keyboard and spell checker. I try not to use predictive text because I cant always select the right word. I find it easier to write it out. However, I know people who swear by the predictive software you can get.

My dyscalculia is much worse. I find mental arthimatic almost impossible. I couldn't tell you what 34+67 is. Even when I write it down and I know the answer is right I don't understand why the answer is right. I have stopped worrying WHY I don't know this and just learned to accept it IS right!

A practical example: I think you said you are a painter and decorator. I bet you can walk into a room, assess the dimensions and work out how much paint you, roughly, need? Absolutely no way I can do that! I just cant comprehend how that works. My brain can't do it. I would have to measure each wall, write it down and then work it out!

 

[alxndr]

being a dyslexic I don't really see any problem here............

Funnily enough one of good friends who's dyslexic might not notice spelling mistakes but he's particularly good at picking up on badly constructed sentences or the wrong word being used. As he has to put in the effort to read each word individually he notices these things, whereas others will skim read a lot of the time.

 

[Cowley]

A practical example: I think you said you are a painter and decorator. I bet you can walk into a room, assess the dimensions and work out how much paint you, roughly, need? Absolutely no way I can do that! I just cant comprehend how that works. My brain can't do it. I would have to measure each wall, write it down and then work it out!

I am yes, although I don’t think I work out the meterage as such. I guess I just know roughly how far five litres of paint will go!
Interesting post though Rich, thanks for explaining.

 

[transmanche]

I did reasonably well but still got a couple wrong.

Do remember, that test is taken by 10 and 11 year-old children in England. Anyone who thinks that schools don't teach grammar should have a go at the test. I suspect that many people will not be familiar with many of the grammar points being tested.

 

[Calthrop]

I've see "loose" used where "lose" is meant; in many, many posts in various parts of the Internet in recent years. I 'd speculate that it's not hard to get mixed-up here -- people maybe have thoughts of things "getting loose of" one: thus one "lo(o)ses" them. I wonder whether English is a language which particularly lends itself to muck-ups of this sort: it has a huge vocabulary, with many words which sound or look similar to each other, and might actually be allied to each other in meaning, or might just coincidentally seem to be so. Another, similar frequent Net faux pas, is in such statements as "he gave free reign to his temper". It ought to be free REIN; but I've seen the incorrect use explained, a number of times, by few people nowadays in the developed world having first-hand experience of riding or driving horses. "Rein / reins" in that context, thus meaningless to them; but they know the word "reign" -- i.e. what monarchs do -- and use it in such expressions as the "temper" one, seeing it as being to do with someone letting their passions "reign" over them, instead of their mastering said passions.

It strikes me as -- with such a wealth of words easily confusable with each other -- mighty easy to get things wrong in this kind of way; especially perhaps if, as mentioned by various posters on this thread, one doesn't read a great deal. I'm loath to pour scorn on those who thus misuse language (for many of us, I feel, some of such offences happen -- randomly from person to person -- to be more irritating than most): there are after all, many far worse evils / greater stupidities, which people can get up to. Many language-precise folk are infuriated by the frequent messing-up of its / it's, as in "in the bitter winter of **/**, the state railway undertaking had difficulty keeping it's steam loco fleet in coal": should be "its". I personally have no trouble keeping this one straight -- "its" = "of it"; "it's" = contraction of "it is" -- but I think I can empathise with those for whom it's a problem -- "apostrophe-s is supposed to signify 'belonging to' -- only here, the apostrophe-s one doesn't , and the one without the apostrophe does -- what the **&%£**^* ?!" I've known people a lot sharper than me about many things, but who had a blind spot over "its / it's".

And before anyone shouts "Pedant!", I'll point out that a pedant is what accurate people are called by those with low standards.

I have a friend who is a fanatical proper-English zealot, to the point that I suspect even @43096 would regard him as a pedant, and not in a complimentary way. He gets apoplectic over scores of different perceived wrong uses of the language, some IMO absurdly trivial. One which I've heard as an annoyance, only from him: is describing something as (got) "for free". He rages about how if you get something without cost, it's just "free": he and his friends, as school kids, jestingly talked about getting stuff "for free", but they knew that in that, they were using bad English -- simple "free" was correct. But nowadays, "for free" is universal; even in quality newspapers. This is one which actually annoys me just a little -- doesn't get me seeing red, in the way it does my friend. I suspect that people find the alliteration of it, irresistible.

 

[scotrail158713]

"Primary school pupils [...] aren't taught basic grammar". I'm actually flabbergasted that a professional teacher would actually say something like that and believe it.

I was actually talking with him about this the other day and he said a lot of kids genuinely couldn’t tell you, at 12 years old, what a noun and verb are.
There’s a foreign languages teacher at my church as well who says she has the same issue with S1’s when they do grammar in French/Spanish etc - they first talk about what it’s like in the English language but a lot of pupils just give a blank look.
I don’t like being negative about stuff like this but sadly it’s all too common now. (In Scotland certainly - maybe education in England is much better )

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a difficult read for primary school pupils. It will stretch most fo them, but it's totally appropriate for 9-11 year-olds when taught as part of a suitable topic. A good secondary school would work with their local primaries to find out which books and topics are taught so they can build on their pupils' existing knowledge.

That’s where the problem is though - it may only be appropriate for two or three in a class of thirty. They could read it as part of e.g. a WW2 topic but there are many other books available that also relate to WW2 that are more appropriate for 10-11 year olds. Then leave the teacher with an English degree to study it with them when more pupils are at an appropriate age to read it, and will get more from it.

 

[DaleCooper]

When I saw that you’d replied to that I actually felt a frisson of fear before I clicked on it.

Blimey! I've never given anyone a frisson before. How was it for you?

 

[transmanche]

In Scotland certainly - maybe education in England is much better

I actually edited my post within a minute to remove all mention of what you responded to!

It was only after posting that I noticed your username, which suggested that you might be in Scotland. And thus with a completely different curriculum to teach, it would not be fair to make a comparison. Apologies for any offence caused.

 

[Mag_seven]

The reality is that the human brain is clever enough to read these errors and actually correct them to ensure a sentence is understood. So if someone wrote 'the ground is a bit lose over there', the vast majority of people would understand that to have meant 'loose'.

I disagree - just because we can understand what a sentence means doesn't mean that we should dispel with correct grammar and spelling.

 

[DaleCooper]

I disagree - just because we can understand what a sentence means doesn't mean that we should dispel with correct grammar and spelling.

Nor should we dispense with correct grammar and spelling.

 

[GusB]

I remember being taught basic grammar in primary school (also in Scotland) and we learned what nouns, verbs, adjectives etc were. My headmaster was teaching our primary two class one day and I found myself being given a particularly hard lesson (in front of the whole class) on the use of there, their and they're. I haven't forgotten that day!

I don't recall there being the same focus on the technicalities of English in secondary school (1986-92). Would I be correct in thinking that the teaching of English in England was split in two - literature and grammar?

 

[Bevan Price]

Surely in a lot of cases things like people putting 'lose' instead of 'loose' or 'quite' instead of 'quiet' and vice versa are just simple spelling errors or typos as opposed to a person not understanding the correct use of the words. And then things like saying 'should of' instead of 'should have' could be down to the area dialect spoken by a person.

The reality is that the human brain is clever enough to read these errors and actually correct them to ensure a sentence is understood. So if someone wrote 'the ground is a bit lose over there', the vast majority of people would understand that to have meant 'loose'.

Another aspect to consider is the fact that the English language is changing because of technology. I've quickly typed this post out on my phone and it would have been littered with spelling mistakes if it wasn't for auto correct so why would I need to learn the correct spelling when my phone does it for me? It even offers me suggestions as to what the next word of my sentence should be. It's actually my belief that in centuries to come humans will start to lose the ability to speak as it will become less and less of a requirement to survive a day

But can you trussed your spell chequer?
(Both underlined words are correct spelling - but meaningless in this context.)

 

[Cowley]

Blimey! I've never given anyone a frisson before. How was it for you?

Unsettling.

 

[duncanp]

One thing that slightly irritates me is the changing of the word order in sentences that use the word below.

For example, in Birmingham where I live the National Express West Midlands website was outlining some bus service changes from 26th January, and it said:-

The below services will no longer be diverted

and

The below services will now follow a different route.

These should have (yes I know it is have rather than of) been:-

The services below will no longer be diverted

and

The services below will now follow a different route.

I think this is an example of an Indianism, where the version of English spoken in India has different spelling and grammar rules, as well as colloquialisms not found in the UK.

Another one that slightly grates with me is Please do the needful which, when I was working, was often used by Indian colleagues instead of Please do what is required.

This is of course nothing new, as the English spoken in various countries around the world has differences in spelling, grammar and meaning. Try asking for a fag in the US and see how far you get.