# It's LOSE, not LOOSE, goddamit! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2006, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581 "2006-07-22T05:42:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Greebo\_Ogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19adc/32.png) [@Greebo\_Ogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greebo_Ogg)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/41 "2006-07-22T18:36:01Z")
IT’s “loose”, not “fire”! Get it right, people! Sending an arrow to your target does not need any kind of combustion! Oh, this is not a discussion about archery? I’ll get my coat… ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/42 "2006-07-22T18:41:04Z")
[QUOTE=Lizard] How many times must I see otherwise-educated people mix these two words up? Lose = to misplace something or to be defeated; Loose = to untighten, or an adjective describing objects that are not securely fastened, etc. One does not “loose” their car keys; an unsuccessful person is not a “looser.” If you use that word to describe such a person, that makes YOU a --what for it-- LOSER! I just see this EVERYWHERE, even on the SDMB! Is knowledge of the English language completely dead?! [/QUOTE] Try being a member of [www.obesityhelp.com](http://www.obesityhelp.com) I had to _lose_ a lot of weight; my _loss_ was significant. This faux pas shows up daily and it makes my teeth grind down in frustration. 😛 VCNJ~ ---
**Author:** ![Club\_33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Club\_33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Club_33)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/43 "2006-07-22T18:52:20Z")
There are two mistakes that I’ve been seeing more frequently lately and they both bug the hell out of me. The first is “alot”, rather than “a lot”. I’m also seeing “where” in the place of “were”. They don’t occur quite as frequently on these boards, however, which pleases me to no end. Or should I have said “to know end”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/44 "2006-07-22T18:54:26Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] And to the first one to point out the typo in the above post: **THIS MEANS YOU!** [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Beware of Doug] That to me say, [/QUOTE] Address is in my profile for my prize. I went on a rant the other day because someone at work had printed out a document with “make sure you include other agency’s in your efforts”. Turns out it was my boss. Ooops. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/45 "2006-07-22T19:22:35Z")
I’m constantly correcting plurals that are written as possessives, particularly when acronyms are being used, i.e., “make sure the TMI’s are ready”. I know this is becoming more acceptable, but my 50s-60s grammar training makes my teeth grind. I have one employee (an engineer, no less) who does not seem to have the grasp of past tense or plurals. “The nut need to be tighten.” He also speaks this way, and I’m wondering if this is some sort of named condition that I’m not aware of. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/46 "2006-07-22T19:26:22Z")
One that I see frequently in sports stories is ‘lead’ instead of ‘led’ as in, “He lead all scorers.” ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/47 "2006-07-22T19:39:20Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Well…I never said I _don’t._ I just wouldn’t want to work for someone so petty as to proofread every cover letter before even skimming a single CV. That to me say, “I care about the small stuff more than the big stuff.” [/QUOTE] It’s not necessarily a matter of looking over the letter line by line with a magnifying glass, though. Typos and misused words leap out at some people without even trying. I work as a proofreader, and on some days when the work’s moving quickly, I’m proofing about a page of copy a second. Even when going that fast, I can regularly catch an improper its or it’s that Word’s grammar-checker missed in a page full of text with a single glance. Drop the amount of text down to a couple of short paragraphs and increase the reading time by several seconds as appropriate to reading a cover letter, and that sort of thing just leaps out. Though I’ve never worked as a hiring manager, if I were to hire someone for a proofreading or teaching position, you bet I’d be concerned if I saw typos crop up in their letter and CV. I wouldn’t necessarily care as much if it were, say, a programming or sales position. Too many typos show a lack of professionalism, but the standards are much higher if it’s relevant to what you want to be paid for. ---
**Author:** ![Ragiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6de8d8/32.png) [@Ragiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragiel)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/48 "2006-07-22T20:02:13Z")
I’d like to raise my voice in a strong vote against [rain/rein/reign]. If you insist on “keeping a tight reign” on something, be warned that I am envisioning you wearing a crown and chugging your third Martini of the afternoon. And pointing and laughing. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/49 "2006-07-22T20:31:16Z")
I just have a mental block about certain spellings, so I don’t get this intellectual superiority some people seem to have about mispelled words. Ask me to solve some complex integral equation-- no problem. Spelling? It just doesn’t sink in. Thank God for spell check. I once wrote a memo to an engineer in my company telling him we’d use the “loser specs” that he wanted. Of course I meant “looser specs”, and he fired back an angry e-mail to me. We had a good a laugh afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![ethanwinfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/96bed5/32.png) [@ethanwinfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethanwinfield)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/50 "2006-07-22T20:43:34Z")
I often wonder if others sit there and think words that are commonly misspelled are actually misspelled when written correctly. It’s privilege, definitely, segue, per se, etc. I’ve been tempted to reply to posts where people throw 's in to make a common word plural (car’s, check’s, letter’s) and ask them why they added the apostrophe. Since I usually only see it with -s plurals, my conclusion is they think they are using the apostrophe to indicate the omission of the e. I wonder if they think I am wrong when I don’t use the apostrophe. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/51 "2006-07-22T20:49:24Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] I just have a mental block about certain spellings, so I don’t get this intellectual superiority some people seem to have about mispelled words. Ask me to solve some complex integral equation-- no problem. Spelling? It just doesn’t sink in. Thank God for spell check. I once wrote a memo to an engineer in my company telling him we’d use the “loser specs” that he wanted. Of course I meant “looser specs”, and he fired back an angry e-mail to me. We had a good a laugh afterwards. [/QUOTE] Wasn’t spelling pretty much catch-as-catch-can before Noah Webster? And didn’t Andrew Jackson maintain that, “It is a mighty poor mind that can’t think of more than one way to spell a word.”? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/52 "2006-07-22T21:36:39Z")
> [@Ragiel](#): > > I’d like to raise my voice in a strong vote against [rain/rein/reign]. If you insist on “keeping a tight reign” on something, be warned that I am envisioning you wearing a crown and chugging your third Martini of the afternoon. And pointing and laughing. If I were you I wouldn’t be pointing and laughing at the king. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/53 "2006-07-22T22:20:42Z")
[QUOTE=monstro] …snip… I suppose having a weakness in mathematics is more acceptable than a weakness in language…perhaps the educated elite is a bit biased against more right-brained folks. [/QUOTE] :eek: Well, for one thing, math isn’t generally “spoken” or posted, so unless someone is perusing your budget spreadsheets at work, a specific math problem in a GQ type forum, or your checkbook or algebra homework, they wouldn’t know. Whereas with language, we all pretty much HAVE to use it to communicate with each other. Otherwise, regarding that mathmeticians are easier on non-math folks or mathematical errors… Are you kidding me? Boy, the math folks you know, and the ones I know are vast worlds apart. Including some of the math lovers I’ve seen on the Dope, (though not recently, no one in present company). I’'m a mathphobic person, and I got that way thanks TO severly AR and harshly judgmental math teachers and mathmeticians. One I had in college, and way back in the 80s too, particularly stands out (though he but one among many with whom I dealt throughout elementary and HS). When I stopped in his office to ask for assistance after I realized I was hopelessly lost, he subjected me to a 20 minute BURN on how people who don’t understand math are psychologically damaged, useless slime, and (not in these exact words, but the intent was there) basically should just shoot themselves and spare the world. I’d MUCH rather have someone tell me, “hey, that’s not the way that word is pronounced (our family even has running jokes on previously misunderstood or mispronounced words that we’ve corrected for each other)” than have one of these angry hateful people go after me for even the simplest math error. Shudder…Argh, let’s go back to spelling and grammar, where it’s nice and safe! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/54 "2006-07-22T22:25:52Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > Whereas with language, we all pretty much HAVE to use it to communicate with each other. Speak for yourself. Me and all my other robot friends use binary to communicate our plans to destroy all of you pathetic humans…er, I mean, the latest baseball trade rumors to each other. (How do you use the strikeout font option, anyway? Don’t we have one?) ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/55 "2006-07-22T22:30:16Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] I have one employee (an engineer, no less) who does not seem to have the grasp of past tense or plurals. “The nut need to be tighten.” He also speaks this way, and I’m wondering if this is some sort of named condition that I’m not aware of. [/QUOTE] Ahem… …of which I’m not aware. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/56 "2006-07-22T22:39:53Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Well…I never said I _don’t._ I just wouldn’t want to work for someone so petty as to proofread every cover letter before even skimming a single CV. That to me say, “I care about the small stuff more than the big stuff.” [/QUOTE] You think actually taking the time to read a cover letter is petty? It IS a job application, after all. Someone in charge of hiring has the right to designate as “big stuff” anything they want to. I agree that for a job as an English professor, spelling errors in a cover letter --which the applicant has ample time to proofread and check over before submitting-- are hardly “small stuff.” ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/57 "2006-07-22T22:42:00Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] Speak for yourself. Me and all my other robot friends use binary to communicate our plans to destroy all of you pathetic humans…er, I mean, the latest baseball trade rumors to each other. (How do you use the strikeout font option, anyway? Don’t we have one?) [/QUOTE] 🙂 Boy are you asking the wrong person, I’m pretty sure it’s up there in one of the icons at the top of a new message though. Maybe the tiny paper one that, (I think) says php and “Wrap tags around text”? Just a wild guess, though now that you’ve asked, someone who knows is sure to come along. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/58 "2006-07-22T22:45:05Z")
I wrote “looser” in an published article in 1995. I still get embarrassed when I think about it. It’s one of perhaps three or four mistakes I’ve made in life which really bugs me. Silly, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/59 "2006-07-22T22:59:57Z")
[QUOTE=monstro] Funny, you never find math- lovers pitting people for their lazy mistakes, yet I’m sure most of us would do quite poorly on a basic arithmetic test. I suppose having a weakness in mathematics is more acceptable than a weakness in language…perhaps the educated elite is a bit biased against more right-brained folks. [/quote] If poor math skills are more common than poor language skills, it’s probably because for most people their language skills (writing/talking) get more use than their math skills. I can balance my checkbook with a calculator, but a machine can’t compose an e-mail for me. > [@](#): > > I dunno. I consider myself a champion of verbosity, but I actively dislike grammarians and spelling fiends. They remind me of those kids in school who always get straight As on their exams, but never have good ideas when you’re saddled with them in group projects. Nor do they know how to cut up when the teacher isn’t in the room. If verbosity = smart, then our country would be run by talk-show hosts. Only possessing actual knowledge of some kind makes a person smart. A grammarian demonstrates knowledge. Verbosity does not. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581/60 "2006-07-22T23:07:34Z")
[QUOTE=Lizard] You think actually taking the time to read a cover letter is petty? [/quote] Whaaa? Where’d I say _that?_ > [@](#): > > Someone in charge of hiring has the right to designate as “big stuff” anything they want to. Look, I can understand being so hopelessly swamped with applications that they’re three deep on the office floor, but tossing out every letter with one typo is _mean._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-lose-not-loose-goddamit/365581.md?page=4)