Loose and lose are two words that are often confused while in use. We take a minute to decide whether to write ‘lose’ or ‘loose’ and end up writing the wrong spelling. Let’s see how to get over this difficulty.
The word ‘lose’ is a word which has three possible meanings: to misplace something; to fail to win; to be deprived of something
Eg: The old lady often loses her spectacles.
We watched them lose the match.
If you aren’t careful, you may lose your belongings.
Oo!
The word ‘loose’ means not tight, not dense or free from constraint.
It can be used as more than one part for speech.
It can be an adjective.
Eg: It’s preferable to wear loose clothes in summer.
The screw is loose.
It can function as an adverb.
Eg: The dog was let loose.
Less commonly, ‘loose’ is used as a verb, meaning ‘to unleash’.
Eg: The activists loosed the monkeys from the lab cages.
Moreover, the two words are pronounced differently. The word lose rhymes with ‘snooze’(The ‘s’ has the /z/ sound) whereas the word ‘loose’ rhymes with ‘noose’(The ‘s’ has the /s/ sound)
To Get It Right:
Say the phrase ‘loose lace’, focusing on the pronunciation of ‘loose’ and also remember the eyelets in the shoe which suggest the double ‘o’ of loose.
‘Loose laces lose the race’ is a terrific mnemonic…so, no more confusion.
