Bobby offered his best football performance without loosing quality academic performance. Shouldn't the verb be "losing" not "loosing"? Built-in grammar checkers don't flag an error on this but I think the verb should be "losing" not "loosing". Any advice will help.
Yes, it should be "losing". I don't even think there is such a word as "loosing" - that would be 'loosening'.
Loosing is the present participle form of loose. Note the -ing, it's crazy complicated rules for use, and how normal people will never utter it once in their sad lives. –Ing form, baby. Messing up foreign tongues since the 5th century.
Yes! It absolutely should be 'losing.' I cringe every time I see someone using "loosing" or "loose" when they mean "losing" or "lose." I HATE IT!!!! I read the word in my head and the writer sounds insane, even though I know what they meant.
The reason why people use "loose" when it should be "lose" is The reason why people use "loose" when it should be "lose" is because they are spelling it phonetically. "O" is pronounced the same as "oo" in both "loose" and "lose" as in how baby's coo an "oo" as in the word school. Of course the ending of each word sounds different. But the words losing and loosing have different sounding "S"s I cannot describe the difference in the moment. By the way, both losing and loosing are in the dictionary and listed as adjectives. Thanks for all your help.
I think this is pretty much figured out, though I'd challenge you to drop the -ing altogether. "Bobby offered his best football performance, but didn't lose any quality in his academic performance." Or, even more simplified: "Bobby performed well in both football and academics."
E.C. Scrubb, thanks for the rewritten sentence that received a badly-needed overhaul. This wasn't the original sentence. Its always good advice to avoid problem words or tricky grammar. Thanks everyone who responded.
Yes! Give this person a prize! This is one of my pet peeves. So many people use loose or loosing when they mean "to no longer possess", when they should use lose or losing, and it makes me want to scream. Unfortunately, no spelling monitor will catch it because loosing is also a valid transitive verb, e.g. to loose an arrow means to release it to flight.
'loosing the dogs of war' is one legit way to use that word... as noted by others above, 'losing' is the verb meaning the opposite of 'winning'...
Last summer, a national chain of clothing shops sold a t-shirt that read "Win or Loose, I'm on the Booze", with the o letters as footballs. So many people must have been involved in the design, manufacture and retailing of that t-shirt, how wasn't the mistake picked up?! It was sad to see.
You are right. My advice would be to disable your built-in grammar checker. They're much more trouble than they're worth.
I've grown to like mine pretty well - but I don't let it think for me. It does however, catch a lot of passive sentences that I somehow missed, and also catches a few oddly worded things that I tend to write, not to completely, totally, and unbelievably mention the split infinitive that creeps up every once in a while.
I find myself doubting that it's really finding passive voice. Humans have enough trouble identifying passive voice; I'd guess that the grammar checker does little more than incorrectly complaining about the use of "was". (I realize that you just said "passive", not "passive voice", but I can't think of what else "passive" might refer to.)
Is this person being serious? SERIOUSLY? I don't even.... Is this a troll? Because LOL SERIOUSLY this can't be a sincere question.
Why wouldn't it be a serious question. If you see it written incorrectly enough times, you might doubt your own usage, especially if you were never sure in the first place whether you were right. I give words44 a thumbs up for asking. He or she was brave enough to question it, and maybe some people who have chronically written it incorrectly will realize their error. Sure, he or she could have looked it up in the dictionary, but more people will (potentially) learn something this way. There are no stupid questions. There is only a stupid silence out of fear of looking stupid by asking.
I wish you were right. I wish we were in a world where your reaction would be typical. Unfortunately, I see this error ALL THE TIME. I am sick of seeing it. Sometimes I feel like I see the incorrect usage used more frequently than the correct usage. Lose/Loose is a huge problem out there -- almost as big as people not understanding they're/their/there. I cringe at that one, as well. Cog is right. Better to ask. Especially, in this case, because the error is so common, I'm glad someone asked rather than just continue on using it incorrectly.
Well said. When you think about it, the other important outcome of this question being asked was a broader understanding of how to properly use "loosing" as a verb. I knew it worked somehow but would have never been comfortable using it.
I just don't understand. I see it all of the time too but I thought it would be common sense. Even as a small child, I would correct everyone for the wrong use. I just never mixed that one up....lose is not loose. I just...
Then you are a rare bird, Jesse Abigail. A select few have grown up in a very literate environment, and these distinctions of usage come naturally. I'm also fortunate in that regard, but I have also leaned that not everyone is so lucky. We can become "grammar Nazis", or we can share our good fortune with patience and tolerance. Schools fail to teach, with a greatly reduced emphasis on rote memorization and more grading "on the curve". Worse, there is often a stigma attached to "being a brain", so many students erect barricades against learning. Also, many of those drawn to writing are the rebels, the ones who kick walls to find out what gives way. The end result is that by the time most young people develop any interest in writing, they have never really been motivated to learn the basics. And it's not easy to unlearn the bad habits. Usage errors among homophones are the most pernicious, because you don't hear the difference in speech between the right and wrong forms.
It's technically grammatically correct as it is (if a bit archaic), but almost certainly doesn't mean what the author intended it to mean. It means that Bobby didn't show (figuratively, let loose) quality academic performance.
