In terms of spelling, meaning, and word class, ‘loose’ and ‘lose’ have different orientations. As a result, they can be difficult to handle. They are like ‘choose’ and ‘chose’ as well as ‘lie’ and ‘lay’. Handling them carelessly will invoke errors, especially the lie, lay, laid, and lain ‘gang’.
‘Loose’ and ‘lose’ should not be mixed up. Where you want to say you don’t want to lose something, you shouldn’t say you don’t want to loose it. Where you mean something is loose, ‘lose’ becomes odd. The confusing nature of the words is part of the reason they recur in major exams like the WASSCE, NECO, and UTME. Here is a typical question in the exams:
Dorcas is waiting for the girl that will help her … her hair.
- losing B. loose C. lose D. loss
Very simple? Well, I hope you are right. I will return to the question shortly.
Between luS and luZ
Based on the similarity in the spellings of ‘loose’ and ‘lose’, you would think both are pronounced the same way. Surprisingly, they are not—and that is the other tricky side the title of this article is referring to. Interestingly, the difference in articulation has nothing to do with the double vs. single ‘o’ in the spellings. Rather, it concerns the pronunciation of the ‘s’ in each. In ‘loose’, ‘s’ should be pronounced as /s/, but in ‘lose’, it is /z/:
Loose: loo-S
Lose: loo-Z
Meanwhile, in both, the ‘oo’ and ‘o’ are pronounced the same way, with both being the long /u:/. In other words, it is like:
Loose: lUUS
Lose: lUUZ
I should quickly add that a similar analysis applies to ‘choose’ and ‘chose’, though the ‘oo’ in ‘choose’ is pronounced differently from the ‘o’ in the latter:
Choose: chUUS
Chose: chOUZ
How did we arrive at the voiced consonant /z/ in ‘lose’ and ‘chose’? When the ‘s’ that ends a word is preceded by a vowel, the ‘s’ is usually pronounced as /z/. Other examples are eyes, wise, arise, is, was, and his. (Note: ‘this’ is an exception and is pronounced with an /s/).
Back to the grammatical difference between ‘loose’ and ‘lose’
‘Lose’ is the present tense form of ‘lost’, which means to misplace something, no longer possess it, or be defeated in a contest. On the other hand, ‘loose’, as an adjective, means not tight or well-structured, describing objects like nuts and hair. The verb generated from ‘loose’ is ‘loosen’, while ‘loose’ at times serves as a verb. This also suggests that ‘loose’ may be more versatile than ‘lose’. For instance, although we can have a win-win game phrase, a lose-lose game sounds strange. The following clauses illustrate the differences further:
If Arsenal lose the next match, the trophy is gone again.
Arsenal cannot afford to keep its defence loose.
The boy helped the old man to loosen the bolt.
Choose and chose
‘Choose’ is the present tense while ‘chose’ is the past:
I can choose two instead of three.
I chose four last week.
I haven’t chosen (not choosen!) any.
Lie, lay, etc.
Study the following sentences:
She wants to lie on the bed for now.
She lay on the mat initially.
Are you the one who laid the bed? It is inviting!
I think the hen is about to lay another egg.
The hen has laid seven eggs (Note: ‘lain’ is for resting/lying down; ‘laid’ is for eggs).
I have been lying on the bed since morning.
I have lain on the bed for four hours (Note: ‘lied’ refers to untruths).
Read the full article here
