Living the death of the Irish property boom | 105 comments (105 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Living the death of the Irish property boom (none / 1)

(Completely OT, when did people start spelling the verb "lose" [past tense: I have lost my donkey; present tense: did you lose your donkey?] as "loose"

I don't think I do this (but maybe?) but I do write 'looser'. Especially when it is to be pronounced 'loohuuser'.

by someone (s0me1smail(a)gmail(d)com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 10:19:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living the death of the Irish property boom (none / 1)

Do native English speakers also do this, or just foreigners?

I suppose it's possible, given that they can't tell a principle from a principal.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 10:21:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living the death of the Irish property boom (none / 1)

Bad native English speakers.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 10:27:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living the death of the Irish property boom (4.00 / 2)

I started seeing it written by americans. I assume(d) they wrote it because they'd never seen the verb "to lose" written down and then they saw someone (not our someone of course) write "Make sure you don't loose your map" and assumed it was correct.

But then I thought, "Surely everyone has seen the word "lose" written down? "Lose" and "lost" surely appear in children's books, not to mention the adjectives "loose" and "looser".

The knot started slipping
The rope became looser
He struggled and struggled
And said, "It was you sir,
Who tied me up tight
You thought "I win, he loses!"
But now that this rope is loose
Ah! See who chooses
To win or to lose!"

And with that up he stood
And the winner was the loser
And this rhyme is rubbish, I know,
But educational
Stop laughing at the back!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 10:32:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living the death of the Irish property boom (4.00 / 2)

Books! What century do you come from?

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 10:32:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living the death of the Irish property boom (4.00 / 4)

Heez 1 of those 20C loozers.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 10:34:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living the death of the Irish property boom (none / 1)

I's an old man from the 20th century, sir.

(Though I doubt if there are all that many parents reading bedtime stories to their children from screens just yet.)

(Though I could be wrong. 'Tis fascinating watching the wheel of time turn and realise that yes, what you thought was one of the "facts of life" is, in fact, soon to be part of "What they used to do", where "they" means "me".)

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 10:36:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Oh yes (none / 1)

At least Americans do. Drives me crazy. Can't they even try saying it out loud?

In terms of pet peeves, loose for lose comes between it's for its (surely the most annoying of all) and lead for led (which I'm now seeing even on supposedly edited sites like HuffPo and Salon).

by Matt in NYC on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 12:15:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Oh yes (none / 1)

I used to write "lead" as the past tense of "lead". I don't know where I got the idea from. I thought "led" was american. But there's no way of reading "lead" as a verb without hearing the "ee". He lead them up to the top of the hill...

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 04:32:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Oh yes (none / 1)

Well, it works with "read", why shouldn't it work with "lead"?

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 05:34:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Oh yes (none / 1)

Good question.

I think it must be to do with other uses of the word.

A dog lead

I lead him away.

A good read.

I read it at work.

Hmmm. Maybe "lead" has more "ee" uses, so the brain sees "lead" and hears "leed"? But then, what about "lead" weights? It was made of lead.

A conundrum wrapped in an enigma...until someone solves it.

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 06:11:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Oh yes (none / 1)

I'm more annoyed by your/you're, thewir/they're. Their is two/too two...

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 05:44:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

People make those mistakes (4.00 / 2)

all the time. I catch myself just firing away and not proof reading and do it from time to time myself.

It's a little hard on the eyes but it beats spending the extra time proofing.

by HiD on Tue Mar 27th, 2007 at 07:26:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: People make those mistakes (none / 0)

As maybe Migeru hinted at it upthread, some errors are more apparent to native speakers and others more apparent to non-native speakers -- I guess this is a case of the latter.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Tue Mar 27th, 2007 at 10:00:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living the death of the Irish property boom (none / 1)

Maybe it's just me...but I read "looser" as loo sir, not loo za.

You, sir, are a looser!

You, za, are a loo za!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 10:23:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living the death of the Irish property boom (4.00 / 2)

(Not you, sir, of course!)

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 10:37:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Living the death of the Irish property boom | 105 comments (105 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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