5 ms·
“Loose” is the opposite of “tight,” “lose” is the opposite of “find.” Easy to remember because the opposites have the same number of letters.
by ChristianGeek 8y ago
“Loose” is the opposite of “tight,” “lose” is the opposite of “find.” Easy to remember because the opposites have the same number of letters.
- Aeolun 8y agoThank you for this public service.
- sureaboutthis 8y agoIt always amazes me how often I see this spelling error.
- triangleman 8y agoIn fairness it feels rather arbitrary and counterintuitive of a spelling rule.
- quickthrower2 8y agoGiven that lose is pronounced looze and loose is pronounced looce I can see why it’s confusing.
- sureaboutthis 8y agoI learned how to spell it in early grade school--maybe eight years old--so I don't understand what's confusing about it but I'm an educated man.
- pjmlp 8y agoMaybe because not everyone is a native speaker that learnt how to spell it properly at eight years old.
- okmokmz 8y agoVery impressive...
- kayoone 8y agothen maybe you should learn that a lot of HN readers are not native English speakers.
- sureaboutthis 8y agoNone of the people I've encountered--save one--ever came back to me saying they were not.
- quickthrower2 8y agoIt's confusing if you try to apply phonetics or any kind of logic to it, as an ESL person might, or many native speakers for that matter. It is certainly not confusing it you learn it by rote and remember the rule. It is burned into my brain, but I see the mistake a lot so I assume it is hard to remember for some people. For me its vs. it's is something I still have to keep looking up.
- sureaboutthis 8y agoLet's not let the minority become the rule. I have only had one person ever come back to me claiming they were a non-native English speaker when having made the mistake over many years of correcting people.
- pjmlp 8y agoThanks.