# Can nobody spell the word "lose" correctly?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-nobody-spell-the-word-lose-correctly/49542>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 11, 2001, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-nobody-spell-the-word-lose-correctly/49542 "2001-01-11T16:51:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Wanderlust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc29f/32.png) [@Wanderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wanderlust)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-nobody-spell-the-word-lose-correctly/49542/21 "2001-01-14T20:38:36Z")

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**lose** and **loose**  
**tight** and **toot**.  
Got it.

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**Author:** ![DRY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-nobody-spell-the-word-lose-correctly/49542/22 "2001-01-15T10:00:20Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Medea’s Child \*  
> \*\*I haven’t been in here earlier, because grammar and spelling aren’t on the list of my talents. Or even things I do.
> 
> Quite plainly, I can not spell. My posts are phrased the way that I speak, so the grammar isn’t all that wonderful either. I do worry that I’m not communicating as well as I could, or even should, because I love interacting with you people and I don’t like screwing up such a wonderful activity. On the other hand, I’m not going to run every one of my posts through a spellchecker because I’m lazy and already spend too much time on the boards. \*\*

I’m quoting this post in it’s entirety because, for once, you didn’t make any typos.

Oh, except **“can not spell”** should be **“cannot spell”**. 😃 😛

::fleeing::

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**Author:** ![Alonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Alonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alonist)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-nobody-spell-the-word-lose-correctly/49542/23 "2001-01-15T13:45:42Z")

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There’s nothing wrong with “can not”. It does use an extra space; I expect spellcheckers are geared for the use of journalists, to whom space is precious. That consideration probably accounts for the ongoing slow demise of the word “fewer”, now sometimes jarringly replaced by “less”.

Don’t let us nitpickers make you feel ungrammatical, M’sChild; you’re not. Our tounges (sic) are sometimes in our cheeks. (if anyone’s wondering,“us nitpickers” _is_ correct.)

I will defend to my dying breathe Nukeman’s right to spell “apologize” any way he wants to; just as he would defend the sacred honor and territory of Notting Hill. Only occasionally (as in the case of the word “then” for “than”) are spelling mistakes genuinely confusing.

I hoap this clears things up.

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