Confusing words: loose, lose

Stuart Cook September 18, 2012 Confusing words 2

Be careful: loose and lose are similar in both spelling and pronunciation but their meanings are completely different.

Loose

Loose is an adjective. It means ‘not tight’ or ‘not fixed properly to something’. Another meaning is ‘not tight enough’. Here are some examples:

The top button on my shirt is loose. Can you sew it on properly for me?

The door handle is loose because one of the screws is missing.

These trousers are too loose. [‘not tight enough’]

Lose

Lose is a verb and means ‘not able to find something’ or ‘have something taken away from you’. It is also the opposite of ‘win’.
Lose is an irregular verb: the past tense is lost.

Here are some examples:

I’ve lost my mobile phone. Have you seen it anywhere?

It’s easy to lose money if you don’t have it in a wallet or purse.

He’s lost his job and now he’s unemployed. [‘have something taken away from you’]

Pronunciation: loose vs. lose

Loose is short and contains an ‘s’ sound loose
Lose is longer and contains a ‘z’ sound. lose

Common written mistake

~~Many people are going to loose their jobs.~~
Should be: Many people are going to lose their jobs.

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By Stuart Cook

Stuart is an English teacher and runs the Speakspeak website. He currently lives in Prague and has been teaching for over 25 years. ⎜ Get Stuart's e-books

2 Comments

Indah - October 26, 2012, 6:57 am Reply

it gives me more information about when i have to use loose and lose, thank you so much
English Learner - December 8, 2012, 9:46 pm Reply

Good post, I always confused the words loose and lose, I do not know why, but now I can recognize them