Conference thebay::joyoflex

    This kind of mis-use is endemic in far more than our techno-sphere.
    
    It is due, in large part, to the modern newspaper, where we have done
    away with the typesetter and the proof-reader in favour of the
    writer in front of a terminal, maybe with a spelling checker program.
    
    The spell checker would find nothing wrong with loose instead of lose
    and vice-versa.
    
    Read your favourite paper and just count the spelling and grammatical
    errors.  It is horrific.
    
    Stuart

    Another common misspelling that gets past spell checker software:
    
    the use of "to" instead of "too"  (as in, "I hope I'm not to late...")
    
    					andrew                       

    re .0:
    
    You could always do what I did when that very same common mistake got
    the better of me for a while. Taking the lead of a friend and
    co-worker, Stu Farnham, who had set his Notes personal name to "There
    is no 'a' in 'kernel.'" for some months, I set my personal name to
    "There is only one 'o' in 'lose.'"
    
    	Jon

I was particularly interested whether anyone thought that this misuse might
in any way be a local phenomenon.  For example, I have never "heard" it - does
this mean that it is only a written and not an enunciated mistake?  I have only ever
"seen" it from American and European (with maternal language something other
than English) NOTES and MAIL correspondents.  I haven't seen it in journals, 
newspapers etc...  - Does this mean that it is a DEC speciality - born in the 
USA or continental Europe and transmitted by the telecommunications network?

Loosely,
/Chris. 

    I think it's a harder word to spell than its shortness would lead
    us to expect.  I've been spelling "lose" wrong since I was in
    sixth grade and I still do if I'm not careful about it, and I'm
    normally a good speller.  
    
    In American English, it's pronounced "looz".  As in, "Will the Red
    Sox looz to the Blue Jays again tonight?"  The "oo" sound is
    usually spelled "oo" (or "u") in American English.  The "e" on the
    end of a word, after an unvoiced consonant, often causes that
    consonant to be voiced (for instance, we say "lost", but "lose"). 
    So many native speakers of American English would expect a word
    pronounced "looz" to be spelled "loose."  
    
    Just from looking at the word, the most common pronunciation for a
    word spelled "lose" would be "lohz."  
    
    So the "correct" spelling is one that looks and sounds incorrect
    by the pronunciation and spelling rules that many people use. I
    expect the "lose" spelling to disappear completely within a couple
    more generations.
    
    --bonnie

    �So the "correct" spelling is one that looks and sounds incorrect
    �by the pronunciation and spelling rules that many people use. 
    
    Indeed. So that's my rule - if it looks and sounds incorrect, it's
    right.
    
    I think the problem is compounded by choose/chose. `Lose' is present,
    so I suspect a lot of people assume `chose' must be.  I say "suspect",
    because the context, often in technical manuals, allows either word - 
    `If you chose...'; as the writer has often, in the same book, said
    `If you <pretent-tense-verb>...', I assume the worst.
    
    Maybe, if bonnie's right (and I think she may be), `lose' will
    disappear in time to save the chose/choose distinction. Come to
    think of it, perhaps I ought to start spelling `lose' `loose',
    to protect `chose'.
    
    Confoosed?
    
    b

    Confoosed?  Well I wasn't before I read .5 and .6.  I don't disagree
    with them, but if I think about them, I'll never get lose/loose and
    chose/choose correct again.

    re: .7
    
    Yes, if you chose to loose your thoughts and let them ramble in
    the fields of absurdity, you'd lose your ability to choose.
    
    --bonnie

    G'day
    
    It wonder if it is more prevalent in the USA, rather than, say, the UK?
    
    With the use of 'z's everywhere, I am surprised not to see looze.  ;-)
    
    
    
    Actually though, it is quite easily remembered. 
    
    Loose is a soft sound, rather than lose which is much harder on the
    's'.  So you let your dog loose, then worry that you may lose him.
    
    Loose also has a light intonation upwards, lose definitely tones
    downwards.
    
    No problem.
    
    derek
    

    re: .9
    
    Yes, the _pronunciation_ is very plain, and that's the problem --
    people try to spell "lose" the way they pronounce it.  "Looz", the
    phonetic spelling,  translates very easily to "loose" and not at
    all obviously to "lose." 
    
    As somebody else mentioned, "choose" and "chose" reinforce the
    ambiguity.  "Choose" and "loose" look like they should rhyme. 
    "Chose" and "lose" look like they should rhyme -- but the word
    pronounced pronounced "lowz" is spelled "lows" (as in more than
    one low pressure area, for example), so "lose" is dropping out.
    
    --bonnie
    

    He did not choose to lose the loose shoe. He chose to let loose a few
    choice words at his loss. 
    
    Bruce

    G'day,
    
     You should be in the caboose, sir!
    
    
    
    Personally, I should not choose to lose 'lose', rather to lose face and
    be verbose . Losing 'lose' would be tantamount to losing many other
    choses.
    
    
    derek
    

    Thank God someone else picked up on this!!  I've been reading NOTES for
    3 years and I swear, 8 out of 10 people spell "lose" the wrong way!!!!!
    (loose)....and it's been driving me nuts!!!  O.K....I got it out, now
    I'm happy......
    
    Hang lose!! Ooops! I mean loose!!!
    
    
    

     Re: "hanging lose", et. al. 
    
     Try word association:

     "If the noose is loose you won't lose your life."

     "You can choose the noose if you chose repose."
          
     'S'true, ya gotta be careful using SPELL.  (I thought I was a great
     speller until I used SPELL.)  I wrote a piece on Elfego Baca, and
     when I ran it through SPELL I accidentally changed (globally) the
     town of Behen to "Been" and missed it.  The posting brought a 
     response I hadn't planned on: "...never heard of the town of 'Been';
     are you sure it isn't 'Behen'? "   ARRGH!!!
    
    So now I proof read *after* SPELL.
    
    				   			Don

    Did you miss SPELL's misspelling?  Sounds like if it went away,
    you wouldn't miss SPELL.  Good thing you dispelled SPELL's myth.