Lose ---- Loose --- ahhhhh

I would say neither lose your patience nor loose your purse strings, if you want to succeed in life.

There is a big difference (to the English ear) between |looz| and |loos|. Unfortunately, the spelling is confusing and many people (even English writers who should know better) habitually or occasionally miss out the extra 'o'. Lose is a verb and is pronounced with a 'z' sound at the end the 'oo' sound is also very slightly longer than the 'oo' sound of 'loose'. It DOES rhyme with 'booze', 'choose' and 'zoos'. It does NOT rhyme with 'dose', 'close' (the adjective and noun rather than the verb). Related words are 'lost' (the past particple) and 'loss' (the noun), both of which have a short 'o' sound. Loose performs duty as an adjective, a noun (in the idiom 'on the loose') and a verb (meaning 'to set free'). The 'oo' sound is rather short (but not as short as the similar sound in 'put' and 'foot') and the word (even in the present and past participles - 'loosing' and 'loosed') always has an 's' sound. Mention of the word 'close' above reminds me that this is another confusing word with two different ways of pronouncing it. When it is a verb (as in 'Please close the door.' or 'The shop is now closed') it is pronounced |cl?uz| (with a 'z' sound at the end); when it is an adjective meaning 'nearby' or a noun referring to a street or a piece of land which is fenced round ('closed off'), it is pronounced |cl?us| (with an 's' sound). The vowel is the same as that in 'go', 'show', 'don't'. Other words which are often confused are 'cloth' and 'clothe'. The former is a noun meaning a piece of material, either one which is cut and sewn into 'clothes' or just a simple square used to wash and wipe, and rhymes with 'moth' while the latter is a verb (and in the plural) a noun - 'clothes' - pronounced with a voiced 'th' (as in 'then') The present and past participles, 'clothing' and 'clothed' are both pronounced with the diphthong, as in 'show' and the voiced 'th'. English words and spellings are truly a minefield for people whose own language has a perfectly regular and predictable spelling system!

Wow are you an english teacher? I agree with you many times I am confuse with these two words. I really appreciate reading it here in Mylot!

well we can distinguish it if its used in a sentence.even if its almost sounds the same it has different meanings.but i think the word loose is pronounced longer than the word lose.

Because your belt is loose,you will probably lose your pants. Pronounce the word 'loose' as 'looz' and 'lose' as 'loz' and see it's not same.

I am a native english speaker and I usually have to think about which to use. The problem I have is that it seems logical to me that when we say "you lose" that the o in that word is so long, there should be two of them, but there aren't. Whereas the word "loose" actually has a shorter different "o" sound. I always want to put two "o's" in lose, and there are times when it just seems right, but breaking the rules just can't be done. But a lot of people do it by mistake, and its not surprising.