It didn't, but the advent of spellcheck and autocorrect has made everyone completely give up on proper grammar or word selection as long as no squiggly line appears.
Maybe that’s part of it, but I’ve also noticed autocorrect on my devices often correcting incorrectly. As in, I type the word correctly and it decides “oh, surely you meant this other similarly spelled word” and changes it. Sometimes I don’t notice until after sending the message.
Having grown up around immigrants and other folks who learned English as a second language, I always attributed "loose" for being a signal that perhaps English isn't the writer's first language.
I think what you say is partly true too, but it's not a new phenomenon. Some examples
Language evolves. The English we learned in grammar school is likely not going to be the same English our kids or grandkids learn. At the end of the day, written communication has a single purpose — to communicate. If I can understand what the author is trying to say, then the author achieved their goal. That being said, I wish my mom did use spell check or autocorrect because her messages often require a degree in linguistics to decipher, but because of typos, not spelling. Maybe she'll influence the next evolution in typed communication :)
Could also be non-native speakers .. Even as a former grammar nazi, now that English isn't my daily driver language I find myself making basic mistakes .. (two, too, to / its, it's / etc.)
Ha. Non-native speaker here although you wouldn’t be able to tell what talking to me, until you hear me confuse when to use this vs that, and lose vs loose. Some things my brain just refuses to remember.
It doesn't make sense to have "lose" pronounced as it is. We have rose, pose, dose, nose all pronounced with ō. And then you have lose pronounced as loo͞z. It feels natural to put two O's in there when you write it.
In all of those places loose means something that isn't tight and lose something that you've displaced.
I think it would be correct to say people display varying command of the English language, which to me has never been a problem - as long as I can understand what you mean, it's all fine.
This is not the first time Pete Hegseth charged into a bar, started swinging his fists and screaming "don't you know who my father is", only to find his junk in a vise with no graceful way get it out.
Side note, how did the word "lose" become "loose"? I've seen this so many times on HN.
It didn't, but the advent of spellcheck and autocorrect has made everyone completely give up on proper grammar or word selection as long as no squiggly line appears.
Maybe that’s part of it, but I’ve also noticed autocorrect on my devices often correcting incorrectly. As in, I type the word correctly and it decides “oh, surely you meant this other similarly spelled word” and changes it. Sometimes I don’t notice until after sending the message.
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That defiantly has something to do with it
Having grown up around immigrants and other folks who learned English as a second language, I always attributed "loose" for being a signal that perhaps English isn't the writer's first language.
I think what you say is partly true too, but it's not a new phenomenon. Some examples
- awful used to mean "awe-inspiring" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/awful
- you used to be the plural/formal second person pronoun with thou being the informal form https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You
- prior to the printing press English didn't have any standardized spelling at all https://www.dictionary.com/articles/printing-press-frozen-sp...
Language evolves. The English we learned in grammar school is likely not going to be the same English our kids or grandkids learn. At the end of the day, written communication has a single purpose — to communicate. If I can understand what the author is trying to say, then the author achieved their goal. That being said, I wish my mom did use spell check or autocorrect because her messages often require a degree in linguistics to decipher, but because of typos, not spelling. Maybe she'll influence the next evolution in typed communication :)
Edit - formatting
Could also be non-native speakers .. Even as a former grammar nazi, now that English isn't my daily driver language I find myself making basic mistakes .. (two, too, to / its, it's / etc.)
Because your pronounce them backwards.
"Loose" is a short word that ends sharply, but "lose" is a long word that slowly peters out.
They should be the other way around imo.
If we're allowed to make modifications here then it should really be lose => looze and loose => luce
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This was also the way I felt before I was introduced to "the magic e" (spoiler: it still doesn't make any sense)
https://www.academysimple.com/magic-e-words/
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Now that you frame it that way, I'm surprised "lose" didn't evolve to be pronounced like "Lowe's"
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Loose rhymes with moose, noose, caboose...
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Since English has a glut of loaner words, I'd assume the two words just originate from different languages.
I’m guessing most cases of loose/lose switch happen when English isn’t someone’s first language.
In my experience, this mistake happens all the time for native English speakers born in the US.
Indeed, but other languages have been around forever whereas I've seen this particular misspelling a ton in the last year and rarely before that.
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And let’s not get started on it’s vs. its-—a distinction that now seems irretrievably nerfed
I always assume not everyone is an English speaker and let it go.
Ha. Non-native speaker here although you wouldn’t be able to tell what talking to me, until you hear me confuse when to use this vs that, and lose vs loose. Some things my brain just refuses to remember.
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Exactly the same way that the `cancelled` of my youth became `canceled`. By being misspelled so often that the misspelling won.
In this case, it's not clear who wins yet — "lose" may loose, or mount a comeback, resulting in "loose" being the one to lose.
I've said it a couple times in the past: That's so cringe!
It doesn't make sense to have "lose" pronounced as it is. We have rose, pose, dose, nose all pronounced with ō. And then you have lose pronounced as loo͞z. It feels natural to put two O's in there when you write it.
English is not a rules-based language, esp wrt pronunciation. Words can be pronounced as anything.
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I try to let it go, but this is my pet peeve.
people are from many places
In all of those places loose means something that isn't tight and lose something that you've displaced.
I think it would be correct to say people display varying command of the English language, which to me has never been a problem - as long as I can understand what you mean, it's all fine.
It's fine, nothing to see. Just focus on the intended meaning not the underlying delivery. Mere words don't really impact communication. Right?
u r crct
Ok. This is was either brilliant or I did not wake up yet.
This is not the first time Pete Hegseth charged into a bar, started swinging his fists and screaming "don't you know who my father is", only to find his junk in a vise with no graceful way get it out.
For some reason I thought you were doing a setup for a joke...
"The President of the US, the Secretary of Defense, Iranian Prime Minister walk into a bar..."
Hegseth gets drunk, Mojtaba preaches the benefits of abstaining from alcohol, and Trump trips because he didn't see the bar