Topic: Lose vs Loose - page 2. (Read 3553 times)

Well, it's not that simple. As aforementioned, you can't ignore that a lot of users don't have English as their native language, so it's not necessarily intuitive for them how to spell/which form is correct. And without a good dose of "self-inflicted" exposure to English, there probably isn't much that the education system can do.

Sometimes I see people who use basic grammar reasonably well get this wrong, but I think that is down to an honest mistake, typo or an auto-correct.

If people just think about what they are saying/typing then they will realise what the correct usage is, at least I would hope so!

Maybe the education system needs to engage people in different ways, how exactly I'm not so sure.

I know the reasons why people use "should of" and instead of what, but to me it looks more like "sort of". So, when someone writes something along the lines "they should of done this", it often seems to me that the actual meaning being conveyed is that "we somehow expected (hoped) them to do that" with less certainty than the correct wording would convey... Is it only me?

You could just throw up a copy/pasted google translate of the non-english post along with the original. That way people will know what you are saying, and we are much more lenient when we know you are a non-native speaker.

'Should of' is something native speakers say because they are too lazy to learn the language they speak and do not think about the words they use. The contraction "should've" ends with a sound like "of", and so the ignorant just write it that way.

Very good. You're right, I missed commas. Now take one more look at that post because it will be deleted soon, along with yours, for quoting me. lol

You probably missed some commas, but since I often miss them too, I would abstain from blaming you for that. Also, that part about "who is popular satanic music today" catches my eyes and ears...

They're way overworked and don't always really read what they're deleting. I am glad that they are keeping the off-topic section so squeaky clean. If they didn't do that then we might miss important info about who's a virgin or popular satanic music today. LOL

Now I purposely made some mistakes in the above sentences. Who can find them? Will you be the winner or the looooser?

I just noticed a couple of my messages got deleted along with yours... 

It's probably in the rules section somewhere I'm sure (no, I haven't read it yet), but it still seems like an overkill to just delete the messages, specially when the person posting it had a good point (even though I agree that it could have been presented in a better way).

Obviously, saying something perfectly on topic and in another language grinds your gears too!

The point I was making is one of degrees. You have to do a little translating when you read a post written by a non native English speaker. Suffer through the bad grammar because you don't know why that person writes the way they do. Everyone has something to add regardless of your desire to receive the info and it doesn't need to be in perfect form.

Should of instead of should have grinds my gears personally.

I always liked such sentences. You never know what you will end up with...

You still didn't get it.

I was having fun with a quotation oten attributed to Winston Chruchill but evidently were the degree of awareness of history around herewere put into watts and called a light bulb, that bulb would not light a darkened room.

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/churchill.html

From the citation:

"The saying attributed to Winston Churchill rejecting the rule against ending a sentence with a preposition must be among the most frequently mutated witticisms ever. I have received many notes from correspondents claiming to know what the “original saying” was, but none of them cites an authoritative source.


The alt.english.usage FAQ states that the story originated with an anecdote in Sir Ernest Gowers’ Plain Words (1948). Supposedly an editor had clumsily rearranged one of Churchill’s sentences to avoid ending it in a preposition, and the Prime Minister, very proud of his style, scribbled this note in reply: “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.” The American Heritage Book of English Usage agrees.


The FAQ goes on to say that the Oxford Companion to the English Language (no edition cited) states that the original was “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.” To me this sounds more likely, and eagerness to avoid the offensive word “bloody” would help to explain the proliferation of variations."

Just my $.02.

I make mistakes as well but sometimes when I try to correct it with this damn Firefox plugin I click the wrong one , and then I end up with a correct world oath takes on sees word that makes no sense.
Also , English is the 4th language I've learned

Yeah, I understand you were trying to be funny, but it would work better if your sentence was actually structurally correct. "... is something up with which I will not put" is not just awkward, it is wrong because it separates and reorders the pieces of the idiomatic phrase "put up with" so far as to completely disconnect them.

Yeah, I do the occasional typo and sometimes overlook them.

The comma was a good catch though.

I think you missed the point of the post however........................................

I was sort of poking fun at the whole thing..............................

My $.02.

Should be:  Now, I want you all to remember that the misuse of the preposition, especially the ending of a sentence with a preposition, is something I will not put up with!

(I fixed the spelling and added a comma, and fixed the ending. You can end a sentence with 'put up with' since it is acting as a verb phrase and not a preposition.)

Actually, I don't care about those mistakes, not in the slightest degree ("difficulty language")...

This is an example of how there are two ways of making spelling mistakes, mistakes that come from just not knowing the correct spelling, and mistakes that come from hitting the wrong key. I often hit keys in the wrong order. So I will hvae sentecnes wiht wrods liek htis.

Those letters are next to each other, so no wonder I could make an error. Now fixed...


As I said before, I see the difference in meaning between these variants, so I don't consider it (to be) a (common) mistake at all. In short, you don't know the language yourself at the level you pretend you do. "Capable at doing something" means that you can do it pretty well (skilled at doing it), not just being capable of doing it in the sense of being able to do something at all...