Fast and Lose English
In recent months I’ve seen at least three college graduates on my friends list type “loose” when they meant “lose”, or vice versa, and it’s just as common an occurrence for the people who write for my magazine.
I find that surprising. The two words are completely distinct: in meaning, in part of speech, and in pronunciation. It shocks me that anyone could mistake one for the other, and it usually lowers my opinion of the author’s intellect when I see it.
So in an effort to ensure that doesn’t happen to you, I’d like to provide a little review. I’ll make it as quick and painless as possible, but it may require a bit of mental effort to internalize the difference.
Here’s the lazy person’s rule: if you say it aloud and get a “Z” sound, that’s “lose”; if you get a soft “S” sound, that’s “loose”. If, as a native English speaker, you have a reliable ear, that might be all you need.
But if not, here’s the gritty that is nitty…
“Loose” is usually an adjective. It describes something not firmly attached. Your belt is loose. A knot is loose. Some *thing* is loose. But it has absolutely nothing to do with something that is (or might become) lost, and you usually can’t “loose” something1.
“Lose” is a verb; something can’t be “lose”. It is an action: you lose something. You lose your way. You lose your keys. You might even lose weight one of these days. If you lose something, it becomes lost; you can’t find it or don’t have it anymore.
That covers 99% of all cases. Unless you’re a purist, you can commit the above to memory and never look silly again.
1 Now, for the purists out there, “loose” can, in fact, be a verb. In rare instances, you can actually loose something. However it still has the same basic meaning: to release or unattach. You can loose a boat from a mooring. You can loose an arrow. It’s like a more complete form of “loosening”, as you’d loosen a tie. But in none of these instances does the object you loose or loosen become lost. If you lost it, then you want “lose”, never “loose”.