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Lose vs Loose

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DaleCooper

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At the risk of being labelled a pedant or worse "a spelling Nazi" I would like to point out the difference between the words "lose" (verb: to be deprived of, unable to find, fail to win etc.) and "loose" (adjective: not tight, slack, careless etc.).

I don't know why but the mistake of using loose/loosing instead of lose/losing seems common on this forum (another example appeared today) yet I rarely see it elsewhere.

OK, I'm ready for the flak and just hope I haven't made any spelling or grammatical errors in this post.
 
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Cowley

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Do you even no what your about to let lose with this thread?
 

AM9

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At the risk of being labelled a pedant or worse "a spelling Nazi" I would like to point out the difference between the words "lose" (verb: to be deprived of, unable to find, fail to win etc.) and "loose" (adjective: not tight, slack, careless etc.).

I don't know why but the mistake of using loose/loosing instead of lose/losing seems common on this forum (another example appeared today) yet I rarely see it elsewhere.

OK, I'm ready for the flak and just hope I haven't made any spelling or grammatical errors in this post.

I'm with you on that but as forums seem to attract a fair number of posters with poor spelling/grammar/ - and malaprops galore, I've generally ignored the errors. Unless I'm quoting their posts verbatim, (i.e. within quotation marks), I delibrately don't perpetuate the error in my words in the hope that some at least might check up on why my version of english is different to theirs, however many carry on making the same miistakes for years so I suppose they think that they are right (or don't care).
So as Cowley has warned, cries of 'spelling (or grammar) Nazi' might abound, but I can just ignore them as others do even when they might suspect that their sentences are wrong.
 

AM9

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What a wonderful place to type that!
Yup, that's a typo through keyboard bounce. Off-topic, but if anybody cares to look at my past posts, double (and sometimes more characters) frequently creep in, but they are not spelling errors made every time that I use specific words. I've been trying to fix this for several months even though it is a decent Cherry keyboard.
Laughs on me though. :)
 

Bevan Price

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Do modern schools teach spelling or correct English grammar ? Even the BBC seems prone to (what seems to me) strange use of grammar.

And use of automatic "spell correction" can produce odd results, especially for place names, etc.
My own typing errors usually arise due to hitting a neighbouring key to that intended (clumsiness), or a key failing to respond.
 

Cowley

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Do modern schools teach spelling or correct English grammar ? Even the BBC seems prone to (what seems to me) strange use of grammar.

And use of automatic "spell correction" can produce odd results, especially for place names, etc.
My own typing errors usually arise due to hitting a neighbouring key to that intended (clumsiness), or a key failing to respond.
I did terribly with my exams (in 1989), but I’ve always read a lot so that’s helped me over the years.
I still make all kinds of mistakes with grammar and punctuation though and sometimes have to ask Mrs C to check things over for me before I post them as I can end up getting worried about it.
I’ve definitely got a few gaps in my knowledge that I feel embarrassed about.
 

pdeaves

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Do modern schools teach spelling or correct English grammar ?

When I was at school (a long time ago now!) my French teacher went crazy trying to explain something. It was something to do with what you 'always' do with verbs. Blank looks from the class - most had no idea what a verb was. Miss F (French teacher) went storming off to Mrs G (English teacher) and gave her a piece of her mind. The next English lesson we had about ten minutes on verbs and that was it.

My brother (younger than me) was told that spelling in his English exam didn't matter as long as the examiner could understand what was meant.

I would therefore not be at all surprised if schools today do not teach correct spelling or grammar.
 

PeterC

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When I was at school (a long time ago now!) my French teacher went crazy trying to explain something. It was something to do with what you 'always' do with verbs. Blank looks from the class - most had no idea what a verb was. Miss F (French teacher) went storming off to Mrs G (English teacher) and gave her a piece of her mind. The next English lesson we had about ten minutes on verbs and that was it.

My brother (younger than me) was told that spelling in his English exam didn't matter as long as the examiner could understand what was meant.

I would therefore not be at all surprised if schools today do not teach correct spelling or grammar.
I learned more grammer from being taught foreign languages than from English lessons.
 

theblackwatch

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It isn't just on this forum that 'lose' and 'loose' are used incorrectly, as I've seen it frequently in e-mails too. The other one a lot of people seem to get wrong is 'busses'.
 

Cowley

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It isn't just on this forum that 'lose' and 'loose' are used incorrectly, as I've seen it frequently in e-mails too. The other one a lot of people seem to get wrong is 'busses'.
Yep, that’s a very common one.
Their, they’re and there seem to catch plenty out as well...
 

DaleCooper

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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...".
 

Cowley

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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...".
I think you’re going to have to have a lie down at this rate.
Next you’ll be saying that you don’t like emojis. ;)
 

Cowley

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Emojis are only acceptable when used ironically so you get away with that one but don't push your luck.
When I saw that you’d replied to that I actually felt a frisson of fear before I clicked on it.
 

transmanche

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I would therefore not be at all surprised if schools today do not teach correct spelling or grammar.
Hahahaha, that's hilarious! You could not be more wrong.

The National Curriculum for Primary Schools in England includes lots of spelling and grammar requirements. Many people think the grammar is far too detailed and overly technical for primary school pupils.

Could you identify a fronted adverbial? Show whether a sentence is written in the active or the passive? Explain how a modal verb changes the meaning of a sentence? Rewrite a sentence so it is in the present progressive? Identify a subordinate clause or a subordinating conjunction?

These are all questions that children in England were asked in the 2018 SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) assessment tests in year 6 (age 10-11). Why not have a go yourself? You can see the full paper here.

In the meantime, try this one:

Charlie spilt his juice, but it didn’t go on his shirt. What is the grammatical term for the underlined part of the sentence?
  • an adverbial
  • a main clause
  • a noun phrase
  • a subordinate clause
It's a main clause.
 

Statto

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Funnily enough it's not lose, loose i get mixed up with, mostly daft things like, when you have multiple spellings for the same word like, where, were, wear,[ i know wear is, what are you wearing] then you have Ware in Herts, :E of & off is another one.

Worst one is typing on a mobile device without any spell check[sometimes spell check doesn't spell the word you want], then you get the ones with predicted text which mean something different to the one you actually typed.
 

AlterEgo

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At the risk of being labelled a pedant or worse "a spelling Nazi" I would like to point out the difference between the words "lose" (verb: to be deprived of, unable to find, fail to win etc.) and "loose" (adjective: not tight, slack, careless etc.).

I don't know why but the mistake of using loose/loosing instead of lose/losing seems common on this forum (another example appeared today) yet I rarely see it elsewhere.

OK, I'm ready for the flak and just hope I haven't made any spelling or grammatical errors in this post.

I find it common on social media. People don’t read enough. I’m still always pleased to read “faze” used in the correct context.
 

AM9

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I find it common on social media. People don’t read enough. I’m still always pleased to read “faze” used in the correct context.
Maybe electrical engineers can be excused for being 'phased'. :)
 

superjohn

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Why not have a go yourself? You can see the full paper here.
The answers can be found here
https://assets.publishing.service.g...72e_2018_ks2_English_GPS_Mark_schemes.pdf.pdf
from page 9 onwards.

I did reasonably well but still got a couple wrong. For the multiple choice questions I found it was a case of spotting the obviously wrong answers rather than my knowing which was correct, if that makes sense.

The concept of formal vs. informal grammar isn’t one I remember from school. In my eighties education, grammar was either correct or not!
 

scotrail158713

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Do modern schools teach spelling or correct English grammar ?
My Dad’s a secondary school English teacher and this is his biggest frustration. Primary school pupils read books like The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, yet aren’t taught basic grammar. This then means he has to spend time teaching them grammar when they come to secondary - and they then won’t read books like The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas as they’ve already read it in primary but won’t have really understood it, so he then has to find more books to use.
 

krus_aragon

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At a previous job, there was a shelf in the store room labelled "stationary". And, fair play to it, it never moved, no matter how many boxes of pencils we put on it.
 

talltim

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There seemed to be a period from the late 70s, through to about 10 years ago when grammar wasn’t taught formally in schools, except in foreign language lessons. I think it’s possibly swung too far the other way now, but as transmanche has said, spelling and grammar are definitely taught in schools now.
Of course, those old enough to benefit from this reintroduction of formal English teaching are only just starting to be posting on forums like this.
Mind you, not being taught it is not an accuse not to have learnt it. I’ll admit to not knowing the names of anything more than the most basic elements of language, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know grammar and spelling, I just picked it up by reading, in the same way one learns to speak when young.
 
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Puffing Devil

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I'll throw some petrol on the fire with my pet hate of "should of".

Edited when I saw this downthread:


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...".

Should of paid more attention to the thread :) What a looser I am.
 
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eastwestdivide

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Must be even more confusing for the inhabitants of the village near Maidstone, Loose, pronounced like 'lose', i.e. 'looz'.
But place names are a lore unto themselves.

(yes, I know, law unto...)
 
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