Lose or Loose?

[Hillsilly]

Would that be old Australian or current Australian, when I grew up the Australian language was referred to as “strine”. My grandchildren didn’t know what it meant.

Strewth! That's not true blue. We need Kev07 back with some detailed programmatic specificity to ensure no grandchildren are given the rough end of the pineapple when it comes to learning about our heritage. They deserve a fair shake of the sauce bottle, too. Ok...Got ta zip.

(I know Ruddy isn't the best example, but at least he's a high profile person who tried. I always felt very patriotic when reports filtered back from international conferences that the translators couldn't translate his speeches into English.)

 

[Hillsilly]

By the way, love this thread. I thought it was serious for a moment until I realised that most of the people professing their knowledge of English were clearly wrong. Not sure what the subversive intention is by giving people incorrect grammatical information, but very entertaining anyway.

IMHO, outside of a formal environment, getting upset at someone's spelling is pointless. Firstly, as long as they get their message across, who cares how they do it. Secondly, poor spelling and grammar is more likely a language, cultural or educational matter. Telling someone to get the spelling in order isn't going to automatically make them better at it. Instead, its just going to discourage them from being an active participant here. And I know that is nobody's intention or desire. Maybe there are better ways to help people? Perhaps find a polite way to point it out in a thread where you see a problem? At work I often come across people who aren't as good at communicating as they want to be. FWIW, my current favourite solution is Toastmasters.

 

[GaryJ]

what about less and fewer ,less in size and fewer in number,how often do we hear the phrase eg: less people entered the turnstiles than last year[for example]the mental image generated is boggling.

 

[Kwanon]

You can't teach all foreigners correct english by yourself because you posted this...
Get over it.
If anything it will bother you even more after you posted this.
Maybe you should teach us english through Skype or something.

 

[Pandypix]

Americans have such a colorful language, English is a colourful language also. Same but different.

 

[AlanF]

By the way, love this thread. I thought it was serious for a moment until I realised that most of the people professing their knowledge of English were clearly wrong. Not sure what the subversive intention is by giving people incorrect grammatical information, but very entertaining anyway.

IMHO, outside of a formal environment, getting upset at someone's spelling is pointless. Firstly, as long as they get their message across, who cares how they do it. Secondly, poor spelling and grammar is more likely a language, cultural or educational matter. Telling someone to get the spelling in order isn't going to automatically make them better at it. Instead, its just going to discourage them from being an active participant here. And I know that is nobody's intention or desire. Maybe there are better ways to help people? Perhaps find a polite way to point it out in a thread where you see a problem? At work I often come across people who aren't as good at communicating as they want to be. FWIW, my current favourite solution is Toastmasters.

Correct spelling is there for many good reasons, including informal environments: searching the internet, for example, is that more difficult if words are spelled incorrectly; and selling or buying on eBay etc are more difficult if the seller or buyer spells incorrectly (I recall someone selling software for the commonly misspelled words so you could increase your chances of finding a bargain!).

I opened this thread not because of being upset but, as you wished it to be, as a polite way of instruction for the most commonly misspelled word. It is very interesting how it has developed a life of its own.

 

[Hillsilly]

I seem to spend a lot of time trying to decipher text messages. I appreciate what you're saying.

 

[Northstar]

You can't teach all foreigners correct english by yourself because you posted this...
Get over it.
If anything it will bother you even more after you posted this.
Maybe you should teach us english through Skype or something.

I think most people that speak English as their first language are very tolerant and understanding of those that speak English as their second or third language....I know I am.

My annoyance(and maybe others) comes from people that were born, raised, and educated in a country like the US, where English is the primary language, but yet somehow they have never learned to write properly.

With Google, the internet, free libraries, and free k-12 public schools, there is no excuse for not understanding basics like your and you're....to and too...their, they're, and there. If you didn't learn it in school, then learn it as an adult. These words are used all the time when writing....all the time.

Why keep making the same mistake over and over again for the rest of your life? It's more disappointing than annoying that someone is ok with that.

 

[mackguyver]

You can't teach all foreigners correct english by yourself because you posted this...
Get over it.
If anything it will bother you even more after you posted this.
Maybe you should teach us english through Skype or something.

Keeping with the theme of this thread, I'd like to inform you that English is always spelled with a capital "E". I agree with Northstar that most native English speakers are very tolerant of English as a second language (ESEL) speakers, and most ESEL speakers are always trying to improve their English skills. The same holds true for native English speakers learning other languages.

Of course some people are just intolerant jerks.

 

[daltech]

Here in Brazil we speak Portuguese. Currently, all countries speaking Portuguese are undergoing an agreement to unify the rules of spelling. I understand English, but not enough to write correctly, then translate by Google, then fix several times. The conjugation of verbs in Portuguese has no equivalent words in English. In English someone can say: I DO. YOU DO. HE DOES. In Portuguese we say:
EU FAÇO
TU FAZES
ELE FAZ
NÓS FAZEMOS
VÓS FAZEIS
ELES FAZEM
Now imagine a verb that represents the hypothetical future, or the past hypothetical...
Also the order of words in the sentence is quite different, and Google Translator looks like the speech of MASTER YODA in the film Star Wars.

I'm French, you forgot the plural equivalent in English, 'We do', 'You do' (Same as singular) and 'They do' ;-)

I agree with some of the comments in regards to perhaps a part of the population not caring for grammar, it's a fact that some people don't care, I know, 'I do' ;-) I'm not perfect, far from it, but I try.

 

[Famateur]

One that I've been noticing more and more lately, particularly in advertising, is using an adjective when an adverb would be more appropriate. Here's an example from a radio advertisement this morning:

"Start your day delicious at Paradise Bakery."

Does that mean I should be delicious today? Should I feel delicious today? If my day should have a delicious start, it would start deliciously.

 

[cayenne]

One that I've been noticing more and more lately, particularly in advertising, is using an adjective when an adverb would be more appropriate. Here's an example from a radio advertisement this morning:

"Start your day delicious at Paradise Bakery."

Does that mean I should be delicious today? Should I feel delicious today? If my day should have a delicious start, it would start deliciously.

It means they got their advertising dollars worth out of you.

You NOTICED and remembered it....

C

 

[Pandypix]

Advertisers often misspell the city I live near, Wollongong (pronounced as wool on gong) Woolongong does not exist. This spelling may be intentional, however I will avoid products that use this type of advertising. Sydney / Sidney I don't think anyone would think this was clever advertising.

 

[deleteme]

Ever since English has been spoken and written people have been complaining about its misuse.
I used to be one of those people but I yield to the understanding that it WILL change whether I like it or not.

Just think how much it has changed since Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address. The people of that day would be both amazed and despairing of how the language had changed. Not to mention being astonished that we wasted time taking pictures of our food and our cats.

 

[sagittariansrock]

Many of us English monoglots admire greatly the non-English speakers' ability to write in our language. There is one misspelling, however, that is becoming the norm in CR: loose for lose. "Loose", with two os means the opposite of tight. E.g., my lens cap is loose and sometimes falls off. The verb you use when you can't find something is "lose", with one o. E.g., I will lose my lens cap if it becomes loose and falls off.

Unfortunately, "loose" might officially (if informally) come to mean "lose". I was "literally" shocked to learn that the Oxford English Dictionary had changed the definition of "literally" to include "used for emphasis, while not being true" just because too many people are (erroneously, I thought) using it:

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/literally
(look for the informal meaning)

 

[AlanF]

Another example: bad grammar, idiom and spelling spoiling a phish, received this morning.

Tax Return Notification
Dear taxpayer,
I am sending this e-mail to announce you: After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined the you are eligible to receive a tax refund of : 247.29 GBP

In order for us to return the excess payment, you need to send a request to HM Revenue & Customs after which the fund will be credited to your specified bank account.
Please click "Get Started" below to claime your refund:

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi folks.
I think one of the main points that needs reiterating is that to "get their message across" does indeed require the correct use of grammar and use of the correct words. Miss spelling thier will not harm the meaning or context of a sentence as much as using there instead.

How many of you get part way through a question posted here or elsewhere and loose interest in trying to decipher the meaning because of poor grammar!

What is going to happen when our arithmetic rules get as mangled as our language, someone will get under or over paid, then the new bridge will fall down! : ;D

Incidentally where exactly did we get learning "The three R's" for Reading Writing and Arithmetic.

Cheers Graham.

By the way, love this thread. I thought it was serious for a moment until I realised that most of the people professing their knowledge of English were clearly wrong. Not sure what the subversive intention is by giving people incorrect grammatical information, but very entertaining anyway.

IMHO, outside of a formal environment, getting upset at someone's spelling is pointless. Firstly, as long as they get their message across, who cares how they do it. Secondly, poor spelling and grammar is more likely a language, cultural or educational matter. Telling someone to get the spelling in order isn't going to automatically make them better at it. Instead, its just going to discourage them from being an active participant here. And I know that is nobody's intention or desire. Maybe there are better ways to help people? Perhaps find a polite way to point it out in a thread where you see a problem? At work I often come across people who aren't as good at communicating as they want to be. FWIW, my current favourite solution is Toastmasters.

 

[AlanF]

Lose, not loose!

 

[bchernicoff]

I didn't read all the comments on this post, but this page is incredibly useful for these sort of common errors:

https://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html