5 ms·

In fact they are not pronounced the same. English is weird, sure, but I think if you have that kind of misconception then it's going to seem far stranger. "Loo

by vcxy 6y ago

In fact they are not pronounced the same. English is weird, sure, but I think if you have that kind of misconception then it's going to seem far stranger. "Loose" rhymes with "juice", "lose" rhymes with "news", if that helps.

MauranKilom 6y ago
To add to this (because the difference was really not clear to me from your suggested rhymes): The difference is in the sound of the final s. "loose" ends with "s" from "set", whereas "lose" ends with the z from "zoo". And while the vocal sound is the same according to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lose https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lose and https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loose https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loose, I feel that there is (or can be) some difference there. Just like in "jews" vs "juice".
- buckminster 6y ago
  They are shown with different pronunciations. Do you mean the recordings? They sound different to my British ear.
  - vcxy 6y ago
    Definitely different to my American ear as well.
  - MauranKilom 6y ago
    I meant "the sound of the vocal" (the o vs oo), not "the spoken sound" when I said "the vocal sound".
    - buckminster 6y ago
      The vowel! Yes, they are the same.
grugagag 6y ago
I don't know, I personally understood the comment without any problem and wasn't even aware that loose was used instead of lose until it was pointed out. I got the meaning perfectly well from the context. To me these kind of comments pointing out to misspelled words are pedantic at best. And I take back that they're pronounced the same, I ran it through my head a few sentences and there's a difference at the end but it still does not make any sense and these rules are quite arbitrary and sometimes even contradictory. Why does lose pronounce the way it does when nose doesn't pronounce as noose, pose doesn't pronounce as poose, lol.. It's even funny if you ask me. Let the grammar police whip me down with downvotes but I still stand up by my opinion, English is a frigging weird language full of quirks. I speak 4 languages and 2 of them are Latin based and almost never run into the same kind of issues as English. French does not pronounce the way it is written but at least is consistent about it. And nobody bothered to respond to the original comment other than making pedantic remarks. You've got too much free time on your hands.
- outworlder 6y ago
  > Let the grammar police (...) Wouldn't this be a case for the orthography police?
  - silicon2401 6y ago
    > > Let the grammar police (...) > Wouldn't this be a case for the orthography police? At least we already have the semantics police on the scene
OJFord 6y ago
Lose generally (RP, and I think 'most' dialects) does not rhyme with news. 'Lose' rhymes with 'two's [complement]'; 'news' rhymes with 'pews'. (The latter pair has a /j/ or 'yuh sound' before the vowel.) (Heh, really is a can of worms isn't it: 'choose' rhymes with 'lose'; not with 'loose'. Poor ESL learners, no envy from me! Hindi/devanagari, which I'm learning as a second language, is so easy by comparison.)
- function_seven 6y ago
  > 'news' rhymes with 'pews' This must be a regional thing. I've never heard someone pronounce "news" as "nyooze". "Pews" is pronounced that way, however.
  - robin_reala 6y ago
    Default en-GB pronunciation is njuːz.
    - function_seven 6y ago
      Wow, what a blind spot I have. Of course. When I imagine a Briton saying it, I hear that pronunciation. I'm en-US, obviously :)
      - OJFord 6y ago
        Ah, well, I neglected to think/realise AmE was generally 'nooze' too... So I might have to retract 'most dialects' (at least in the way I meant it which was counting speakers rather than distinct dialects). The other form you often see this in is long 'u's being 'oo' rather than (as I would say) roughly 'ew'. (Duplicate, repudiate, muse, etc.)
        bobthepanda 6y ago
        Are you from the Northeast US? I pronounce news rhyming with pews that way.

by vcxy 6y ago

MauranKilom 6y ago

To add to this (because the difference was really not clear to me from your suggested rhymes): The difference is in the sound of the final s. "loose" ends with "s" from "set", whereas "lose" ends with the z from "zoo". And while the vocal sound is the same according to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lose https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lose and https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loose https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loose, I feel that there is (or can be) some difference there. Just like in "jews" vs "juice".

buckminster 6y ago
They are shown with different pronunciations. Do you mean the recordings? They sound different to my British ear.
- vcxy 6y ago
  Definitely different to my American ear as well.
- MauranKilom 6y ago
  I meant "the sound of the vocal" (the o vs oo), not "the spoken sound" when I said "the vocal sound".
  - buckminster 6y ago
    The vowel! Yes, they are the same.

grugagag 6y ago

I don't know, I personally understood the comment without any problem and wasn't even aware that loose was used instead of lose until it was pointed out. I got the meaning perfectly well from the context. To me these kind of comments pointing out to misspelled words are pedantic at best. And I take back that they're pronounced the same, I ran it through my head a few sentences and there's a difference at the end but it still does not make any sense and these rules are quite arbitrary and sometimes even contradictory. Why does lose pronounce the way it does when nose doesn't pronounce as noose, pose doesn't pronounce as poose, lol.. It's even funny if you ask me. Let the grammar police whip me down with downvotes but I still stand up by my opinion, English is a frigging weird language full of quirks. I speak 4 languages and 2 of them are Latin based and almost never run into the same kind of issues as English. French does not pronounce the way it is written but at least is consistent about it. And nobody bothered to respond to the original comment other than making pedantic remarks. You've got too much free time on your hands.

outworlder 6y ago
> Let the grammar police (...) Wouldn't this be a case for the orthography police?
- silicon2401 6y ago
  > > Let the grammar police (...) > Wouldn't this be a case for the orthography police? At least we already have the semantics police on the scene

OJFord 6y ago

Lose generally (RP, and I think 'most' dialects) does not rhyme with news. 'Lose' rhymes with 'two's [complement]'; 'news' rhymes with 'pews'. (The latter pair has a /j/ or 'yuh sound' before the vowel.) (Heh, really is a can of worms isn't it: 'choose' rhymes with 'lose'; not with 'loose'. Poor ESL learners, no envy from me! Hindi/devanagari, which I'm learning as a second language, is so easy by comparison.)

function_seven 6y ago
> 'news' rhymes with 'pews' This must be a regional thing. I've never heard someone pronounce "news" as "nyooze". "Pews" is pronounced that way, however.
- robin_reala 6y ago
  Default en-GB pronunciation is njuːz.
  - function_seven 6y ago
    Wow, what a blind spot I have. Of course. When I imagine a Briton saying it, I hear that pronunciation. I'm en-US, obviously :)
    - OJFord 6y ago
      Ah, well, I neglected to think/realise AmE was generally 'nooze' too... So I might have to retract 'most dialects' (at least in the way I meant it which was counting speakers rather than distinct dialects). The other form you often see this in is long 'u's being 'oo' rather than (as I would say) roughly 'ew'. (Duplicate, repudiate, muse, etc.)
      - bobthepanda 6y ago
        Are you from the Northeast US? I pronounce news rhyming with pews that way.