Following my message about spelling, one of our friends pointed out a spelling mistake in one of my posts. I'd said
"I'd rather get bitten now and then than loose my garden." I did of course mean
lose. My spell checker didn't pick it up because the word wasn't misspelt.
For the benefit of my Spanish readers these are two words that sound similar but are very different:-
- loose - can be an adjective or a noun meaning not fixed, confined or firm - e.g. you can talk about a loose fitting dress i.e one that doesn't cling to the figure
- lose - is a verb meaning to get rid of - in this case my garden
The problem is I am man and as we all know only women are perfect!
2 comments:
I think to be honest Keith the lose/loose thing is one battle that we're going to lose. Thanks to the internet explosion this spelling error has propagated so quickly and is so prevalent that right or thing I think it's approaching a genuine etymological change.
We have to accept that such change happens (otherwise we'd all still be using Elizabethan spellings) but it still grates my cheddar a bit. I think I decided to give up fighting this one when I saw 'loose' instead of 'lose' in an article on the BBC History Site. When the Beeb can't get it right, it's all over.
Though in fairness I did report it and they did correct it ;)
Oh dear. I typed 'thing' and meant 'wrong'. Can't you just taste the irony. :)
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