Lose or Loose? What’s the difference?

Lose is a verb that means “to fail to win, to misplace, or to free oneself from something or someone.”

Loose is an adjective that means “not tight.”

Only one O distinguishes loose from lose.

No wonder so many people confuse these two words! How are lose and loose defined? How can you remember the difference between the two terms?

One way to remember the difference between the two words is to think that “lose has lost an ‘o'”.

Because many people confuse loose with lose, there are many mnemonics to help you remember which is which. For example: If you lose the O of loose, you’ve spelled the opposite of find.

Examples for ‘lose’:

If I lose my glasses once more this week, I am going to glue them to my head. – Ha a héten még egyszer elhagyom a szemüvegem, oda fogom ragasztani a fejemhez.

I will lose weight if I keep the principles of my diet. – Fogyni fogok, ha betartom az étrendem elveit.

I will lose a fortune if my team doesn’t win. – Egy vagyont fogok veszíteni, ha nem nyer a csapatom.

Examples for ‘loose’:

Watch your footing on this loose sand. – Vigyázz, hova lépsz ezen a süppedős homokon.

Travelers are advised to wear a lightweight shirt that is loose fitting.  – Azt tanácsolják az utazóknak, hogy könnyű, lezser inget viseljenek.

There is a dangerous dog loose in the street. – Egy veszélyes kutya mászkál szabadon az utcán.

Let’s summarize what we know about ‘lose’ and ‘loose’ in a table:

	LOSE [luːz]	LOOSE [luːs ]
Pronunciation	rhymes with ‘booze’ [buːz ] or ‘snooze’ [snuːz]	rhymes with ‘goose’ [ɡuːs]
Verb	yes	yes
Verb forms	lose, losing, lost	loose, loosing, loosed
Adjective	no	yes
Adjective forms	no	looser, loosest

 

TIP: if you know that the word you want is an adjective or a noun, the spelling is almost certainly loose, with two ‘o’s.

A single letter distinguishes lose and loose, but you can tell them apart. Practice makes perfect. If you write a few sentences with each of the words, before long you will be a pro. Why not start now? You’ve got nothing to lose!

source: grammarly.com, grammarmonster.com, blog.oxforddictionaries.com

Let’s practise then. Loose or lose?

1. My daughter tells me that it is fashionable to wear jeans that are very …… around the waist.

2. …… is an understatement. She means hanging around the hips.

3. I have no intention to buy any new jeans, so I’ll just have to …… some weight.

4. She grabbed her friend’s hand so she wouldn’t ……him in the crowd.

5. The farmer had three …… teeth and another three that were missing.

6. Don’t worry about your hair – let it hang …… . I like it that way.

7. All his pigs broke …… and escaped through a broken fence.

8. I can’t afford to …… my job so I am unwilling to take any risks.

9. Be careful. There’s a moose on the …… !

10. The stones were……, so it was a dangerous climb.

Key

1. loose

2. Loose

3. lose

4. lose

5. loose

6. loose

7. loose

8. lose

9. loose

10. loose