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Pet Peeve - Losing vs Loosing

Why is it in the past 2 years the confusion over which to use seems to be on the rise?

I just saw "loosing" used twice in a huge mailout by a respectable web company when they really meant "losing".

Ugh.

because loosing sounds better.

and also because people can't spell now-a-days, so they rely on spellcheckers, and unfortunately loosing is a real word.

This is what happened after the 70's... people started loose their standards j/k

Seriously now: unfortunately, spoken language is quite different from the written language because while one evolves, the other is a lot more conservative. This is extremely common in English. I don't know if native speakers feel this difficulty, but English is a very hard language when it comes to spelling because hardly consonants and vowels have a "fixed" form (e.g. "go" should rhyme with "do", but it doesn't; and the letter "g" in the word "go" is not the same as in the word "rough").

This is what leads to this kind of mistake. People usually look for a way to get the written language closer to the spoken language. By the way, this whole speech is based on the fact that I believe that "lose" and "loose" are pronounced the same way: if they're not, forget what I'm talking about

Poppycock, we're not talking about foreigners struggling with the spelling, we're talking about native English speakers who are too feckin' lazy to proofread their work.

I can't count the number of times I've seen "there" in place of "their" or "they're" - and especially in the latter case, come on, you know that something must be wrong when there's no apostrophe (>> ' << for those who've yet to learn what that is) in it. Speaking of which, therein lie the ones that type out words like "dont" and "whats". It's actually a really serious and problematic situation, we now have universities with swarms of students who truly can't string together a sentence, and they don't know what to do with them.

It's a combination of laziness, lack of education & proper reading, and over-exposure to the horribly mangled Internet chat lingo.

inersting topic.

quote:

Originally posted by Clyde77 inersting topic.

^ lol, that was a joke I hope??

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut It's a combination of laziness, lack of education & proper reading, and over-exposure to the horribly mangled Internet chat lingo.

If it makes you feel any better, it doesn't happen only in English And if you ask me, I still blame the writing system more than the people who mispell the words... the Latin alphabet was developed for a language that doesn't even exist anymore. If it's not that good for my native language (Portuguese, which is neo-latin language), how can it be suitable for a language like English?

In fact, when was the last spelling reform in English? Anyone got a clue?

loosing is a verb too though

I agree with you in theory Maaz, and I tend to be very patient with non-native speakers... but as for the natives, I don't have any particular talent for languages and I don't read a lot of books yet I have no trouble, so I guess I can't really see what's so difficult. I think it's just that people don't care whether or not their spelling or grammar is correct - they figure their message will come across anyway, and if it doesn't, it's the other person's fault for not understanding them properly.

But hey that's just me. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

People have been misspelling since the inception of writing, as well as failing to use proper conventions and sentence structure (like this sentence for example is poorly structured). It has more to do with the fact that the internet is an informal communication medium, then with the fact some people are clueless.

If i were writing a letter to somebody I wanted to "look good" to, I would be sure to at least try and correct as many spelling errors as I could. I find spellcheck to be a horrible way to "proofread" your work as more often then not your sentence structure is suffering more than your spelling, or at least that is how it works for me.

People who are spelling zealots on messageboards tend to irritate me a slight bit. Sure sometimes it's fun to take a stab at somebody's typo, but just as long as it conveys the meaning, what is the problem. Sentence structure is far more of a problem in comprehension.

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut But hey that's just me. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

hehe, it's just a different point of view. Some people view the language grammatically. Others see it phonetically.
When some writes "There coming", that's because it sounds like "They're coming" so (s)he supposes it can be understood. However, if you read things gramatically, it becomes an illogical sentence.

I guess I'd better go to sleep before I sound to confusing even for myself

quote:

Originally posted by Maaz By the way, this whole speech is based on the fact that I believe that "lose" and "loose" are pronounced the same way

They're not, actually. "Loose" is pronounced with a hard "s" as in "see" or "bliss", but in the word "lose" the "s" sounds like "zzzz" because of the silent E at the end.

If I'm not mistaken, the emphasis on grammar in earlier days was connected with race and class distinctions, i.e. the people from good homes say it like this and the people from bad homes say it like that.

But I think that attention to grammar, and particularly vocabulary, is important today for the sake of clear communication with all the nuances, underlying meanings and moods intact. (I'm working on it myself.)

As for English getting an update, it depends on who has power. I've been told that a certain American president in the 1930s erroneously said "normalcy" instead of the proper word at the time, "normality". So what happened? Everyone in the country said "normalcy" from then on and it became an accepted word. Now think of Dubya and this "Nu-kue-lar" thing of his...

I have been known to become a "grammar nazi" on forums in the past because I got sick of people using either "l337 speak" or using their - there - they're and your - you're improperly.

I came up with a theory about this back when I was in college and the whole thing had not yet become some prevalent. I theorized that the root cause was the lack of reading people do. I tend to do quite a bit of reading (have read 84 books already this year) and always have, thus I am more used to seeing what teh written language is "supposed" to look like on paper. In high school and my first 2 years of college I was able to write a paper with ease in one draft, but in my final 2 years of college I began having trouble forming decent prose and it dawned on me why that was. Those last 2 years of college, 95% of what I had been reading was plays for theatre history classes. Because I was now more accustomed to seeing dialogue and stage directions only, I was not automatically able to write well in prose.

Basic moral of my story: read more books/magazines and read less plays

And for some reason the term "Pet Peeve" has always bothered me....but I too agree that the thread is one of mine as well.

MrS

Oh and the OLDEST and MOST NOTORIOUS internet misspelling:

"too" with one "o"

examples:

"That's to much!"
"All this and tacos to."

i have to agree that loosing vs. losing actually annoys me aswell. but it is a forum where the language is informal. i admit i am one of those people that forgets apostrophes, but that is just b/c i am lazy about hitting the ' key. actually using contractions is improper in the english language; that is what my sister tells me and she is an english professor.
loosing isnt a verb it is an adjective w/ an -ing. losing is a verb.
doesnt matter does it? as long as the point has been made. that is just my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Chrono loosing is a verb too though

my brain is fried...

I want to strangle anyone who uses U, R, Ur, and Y? as words in their typing.


* EDIT - Gah I just realized I broke 3000 posts.

Re: Pet Peeve - Losing vs Loosing

quote:

Originally posted by Swamper Why is it in the past 2 years the confusion over which to use seems to be on the rise? I just saw "loosing" used twice in a huge mailout by a respectable web company when they really meant "losing". Ugh.

It's LOSING as in "LOSER."

It's not that difficult to get right is it?

It seems to be... especially to people who actually speak English as their first language.

Which is kinda odd.

Your a bunch of looser's who pay to much attention to there spelling and grammer.









Seriously, though, learn how to spell:

Definately
Seperate
Wierd
Payed

And then get your homophones in order:

Your/You're
There/Their/They're
Two/To/Too
Practise/Practice
Principle/Principal
Its/It's
Weather/Whether
Lead/Led

And you're half way there! Why can't people get these right?

quote:

Originally posted by Renegade And then get your homophones in order:

Hey! You two stop giggling at the back there!

Bad grammar is something that I'm used to after spending so much time on these forums. It doesn't really bother me though, as long as what people have typed is comprehensible. But...

Outside of the forums it IS annoying. I watched a music video yesterday in which "loose" was used instead of "lose". No excuse, really...

quote:

Originally posted by Renegade Seriously, though, learn how to spell: Definately

its definitely, as it is not finite

seriously tho, i am one of those people who misses out 's capitals, does improper puctualtion like putting this... or.. all the time when its not required. but this is mainly down to the fact that im typing on the internet and cant be bothered with the extra effort for something that isnt formal or required to have proper spelling, grammar or puntuation.

for something that is formal, i always check it thru a couple of times. confusing 'loosing' with 'losing' is idiocy if ur native language is english... even on the internet.

http://www.conmicro.cx/~kturtle/mispell.htm

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