In the wake of my previous post, I feel the need to get another rant off my chest: the importance of distinguishing between loose and lose.
- loose is the adjective meaning unrestrained, detached, free, or floppy. Loose change. Loose women. You can also use it as a verb, but in that case it means you are actively releasing something. You can loose a ship from its moorings, for example.
- lose is a verb meaning you don’t have something any more. You lose your keys. I lose my cool when you mix them up.
The strongest reason I can offer for picking the right one is the way I saw a piece of exercise equipment being advertised in a shop window recently:
Loose fat fast!
Now I know they were trying to give the impression that working out with this kit would give you firm abs and a tight butt, but the actual promise was that you would end up looking like a half-filled water balloon.
Personally, I’d rather not run the risk.
Just get them straight, willya?
May I add the contraction you’re which has been converted to “your” of late.
*grr*
So let’s not go down the “there/their/they’re” road then… 😉