Confused Words - LOSE or LOOSE?

Hi, I'm Rebecca, and today we're going to talk about two other words that are often

confused by students.

Having been a teacher for many years and having read through several hundred or thousand essays,

I can tell you that this is an area where many students do make a little mistake.

And that's between the two words that are on the board, "loose" and "loose".

Alright?

Did you get that?

"Loose" and "loose".

So what are these two words?

You can see that I'm pronouncing them differently, the spelling is different, and the meaning

is different as well.

Okay?

Let's go over them.

So first of all, the word "loose" is an adjective, which simply means that something is not tight.

Right?

For example, "He always wears loose pants."

Right?

"Loose pants."

"He always wears loose clothing."

Means the clothing that he wears is not tight.

Correct?

Okay.

Now, the word "lose", however, is not an adjective.

The verb "lose" is a verb.

So we could say, "He always loses his pen."

Right?

That means he doesn't have it anymore.

He had it, now he doesn't know where it is, he lost it in the past, but he loses it.

So this is a verb.

"Loose" was an adjective.

To describe the pants, the clothes, etc.

Correct?

Okay.

If you also look carefully at these words, you will notice that they are spelled differently.

The adjective "loose" has two "o's", right?

"Loose".

That's why we're saying it a little bit longer, also.

And the verb "lose" has one "o" in it.

Alright?

You'll also have noticed that I'm pronouncing these words differently, correct?

So the pronunciation of the adjective is "loose".

Repeat after me, "loose".

The pronunciation of the verb, however, is "loose".

It has a "z" sound, or a "z" sound, "loose".

This one has an "s" sound, "loose".

Once again, "loose" and "lose".

Correct?

Okay.

So, let's see if you have understood the difference between these two words by doing a little

quiz on the board.

Alright?

So, for example, "Did you blank your keys?"

"Did you something your keys?"

What should we say?

Should we say, "Did you loose your keys?" or "Did you lose your keys?"

Which one?

Okay?

I hope you said the second one.

We are looking for a verb here.

"Did you lose your keys?"

Right?

L-O-S-E.

Second one, "The handle is something."

"The handle is something."

What do we say here?

"The handle is loose" or "The handle is lose."

Which one?

Okay?

The first one.

This time, we need the adjective to describe the condition of the handle.

"The handle is loose."

Two O's, right?

Next one.

"These shoes are two something."

"These shoes are two something."

What is that something?

Loose or loose?

Okay?

You're right.

It's the adjective that we need again.

L-O-O-S-E.

"These shoes are two loose."

Okay?

Last one.

Try it.

"You have nothing to blank."

You have nothing to...

What should we say?

This time, we were looking for the verb.

Try it.

"You have nothing to lose."

Nothing to give up.

So two little words, quite a bit of difference.

Loose and lose.

And I hope after this lesson, you won't lose your way again through this vocabulary.

Alright?

If you have any other questions, please feel free to write www.engvid.com.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Bye for now.