LOSE or LOOSE: Why do most people get it wrong?
Post created on June 12, 2021
Lose or Loose? Are you also among the confused lot? Do not worry! Henry Agbebire’s experience as shared by a Facebook user – Ekundayo Sunday Ademuyiwa will teach you a thing or two.
An HR consultant friend of mine recently used LOOSE and LOSE to eliminate 29 out of 36 applicants in a job interview. Two applicants out of seven were finally selected for the job. There were 36 applicants in all. In less than two-minutes per person, the interviewer placed before each candidate a medium size cardboard with a sentence:
Don’t lose/loose hope; the job is yours.
And then each person was asked to choose the appropriate option between LOOSE and LOSE. 29 applicants chose LOOSE, while just 7 chose LOSE.
[pullquote]Don’t lose/loose hope; the job is yours.[/pullquote]
For too long now, especially among Nigerians, LOOSE and LOSE have often been misused as synonyms (words that are similar in meaning). In fact, LOOSE is the more popular and it takes the honourable position of LOSE almost all the time. Here are a few examples:
I don’t want to loose my moneyI fear Nigeria will loose the matchYou need to loose some weight
What is required in all of these sentences is LOSE and not LOOSE. LOSE, a verb, means “to have something taken away”. It is the present tense of LOST.
LOOSE, often an adjective (though sometimes used as a noun or a verb), means “not firmly attached”, “slack”, “not tight-fitting”, “free”, etc. Use LOOSE in expressions like:
Your dress is loose.You have a loose mouth.
I decided to draw attention to the proper use of LOSE and LOOSE because I hear people argue sometimes that the misuse is inconsequential. That as long as the message is understood, the error is insignificant. This warped view is unacceptable to me.
Is it not curious that what appeared to be inconsequential has become the basis for testing the quality and suitability of an applicant for a high-profile job?
Please let’s stick to what is RIGHT!
Henry Agbebire”Hope you enjoyed reading that? If you’re now sure of yourself regarding this subject, take some time to try out this quiz.
[wp_quiz id=”5785″]
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