"How'd I get such a reputation?"
I’m stuffed.
I realized as I loosened my belt around the Thanksgiving table this evening, I’m going to have to lose some weight or I’ll face a challenge in the new year.
What does all this have to do with a grammar blog?
Simply this: Thanksgiving and its emphasis on eating reminded me that it’s a great time to reiterate the difference between “lose” and “loose.”
If you’re too loose with your diet during the holidays, you risk gaining weight that you’ll have to lose next year. On the other hand, if you lose weight, your clothes will be loose.
Loose v. Lose
Some of the smartest people I know often misspell this word. I joke that its because they refuse to recognize the word “lose” in their vocabulary… they only think in terms of “win.” Unfortunately, since both “loose” and “lose” are legitimate words, spell check doesn’t recognize when you misspell lose, either.
Fortunately, I can offer a few mnemonic devices for these words.
When to use lose
This one’s easy… if you want to spell lose as “loose,” just remind yourself to “lose” the second “o.”
For loose, remember this little phrase: “loose as a goose.” You wouldn’t think to spell goose with one “o,” because it wouldn’t rhyme. I’ve never, ever heard of a gose and even if you didn’t see something wrong with that word, your spell check would.
Who let the goose loose anyway? I don’t know. And why is the goose — as opposed to the cat, cow or monkey — being loose such a big deal? Do loose geese really do that much damage? Or are they saying that geese have flexible morals? When they call someone a “party animal,” is the animal actually a goose?
Now I’m being silly; blame it on too much turkey.
Holiday bonus tip
I’ve got a bonus tip hidden in my second paragraph. You’ll notice the words “new year” are lower cased. Word’s grammar checker is telling me they shouldn’t be… but it’s wrong. (Don’t worry, I’m not yelling at my computer this time.)
“New Year,” along with “New Year’s Eve” is a western holiday and if I were speaking about the holiday, I’d capitalize it.
For instance: “What are you doing for the New Year?” The question (presumably) refers to the actual date of January 1, which is a holiday.
But if you’re speaking about the time span from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010, don’t capitalize the words “new year.”
Ex: “My goal for the new year is a six-figure freelance income.” (And now I may have just shared way too much!)
On the other hand, if I were to make a New Year’s Resolution to get published in Oprah’s magazine, O, I’d capitalize New Year’s because I’m talking about the holiday – even if I may not accomplish the goal on January 1.
In the second paragraph of this post, I don’t have to lose all the weight in one day, but I’ll face a challenge when the new year begins. I’m not talking about the holiday, so I don’t capitalize new year.
So there, Bill Gates and Microsoft Word programmers!
