'Loose' and 'Lose'.

I was told when young that if something was too loose then you might lose it! This has never failed me if ever in any doubt!

Thank you Greatnan, I very nearly started a thread on this subject last week.
Then I chickened out!
It does happen a lot though.

Greatnan good morning - there is a "pedants corner" on GN for this kind of thing. GN in its wisdom has set this up to provide a refuge for those who are passionate about the use of the English language. A haven to which they can retire and rail against falling standards, without succumbing to the temptation to point out errors in the spelling, grammar, punctuation, typing and spellcheckers of other members. I know you knew that really.

Trouble is Jess that the people who look at Pedants corner already know about lose and loose

Well, I think we can pretend this is in the Pedants' Corner .

I saw this in the Telegraph this morning: "For my wife and I the first meal is all toast and telepathy, the joy of unfinished sentences and bonding over elliptical remarks"

It was actually the header. In the body of the article, the grammar (well, that bit) was correct, so I suspect some ignorant young editorial squib has had a hand in the incorrect header.

Sigh.

I think Jess is right, Greatnan. I would hate people to think they couldn't post because someone was going to point out errors, however kindly. Similarly we can all suffer from temporary word blindness, ipad finger, daft spellchecker corrections etc. I struggle with posts that have very little punctuation if I can't make sense of them, but if I can understand what is being said, then that is fine by me. It is just a forum, not a job application! Think of it as halfway between speech and writing....

My husband who is a Mensa member, has never been able to tell the difference between 'of' and 'off'. Nor 'lose' and 'loose'. And I realised the other day that I had posted (in the thread about catching a chill) that 'a doctor laughed at me once', instead of 'once laughed at me'. Thought about correcting it but then thought well it did happen only once The other thing is, forum posts are often written as you speak, rather than as a carefully crafted essay - not so? And very few people speak like pedants all the time. I know I don't!

iPad finger seems to be an unreported disease.
I think I shall write a short monologue on the subject for the BMJ.

Ah well, you can add in ipad shoulder, ipad neck (a bed-based problem), iphone thumb etc mind you, those are all physical. Had a nasty moment the other day when I nearly answered skype on the ipad in the buff, though!

mamie LOL. My best Skype story is my dozy SIL appearing on screen looking for me - in the middle of a large screen at a conference, mid presentation by some luminary, where we had used my personal laptop to save money, and I had forgotten to switch off the automatic loading of Skype. Never again! (BTW I see we make the same point about forum posts being part writing part speaking ...)

Oh that's a fab story. Did she know she had a big audience? At least she had her clothes on....
I always used to hate using my laptop for conferences; there never was anything people shouldn't see, but always that moment of doubt....

I tend to avoid Pedants' Corner myself, and I assumed that many other members do the same, so I posted about this very common error where I thought more members would see it.
I would be very pleased if anybody pointed out any error that I made consistently (not the odd typo) and I assume others feel the same. I don't want to continue making the same mistake and would be grateful to anybody who helped me to avoid it.
I never comment on any individual poster's grammar or spelling, but this mistake is very frequent, so it seemed reasonable to explain the difference between the two words.
If anybody is personally offended (rather than speaking for others) I would be very glad to hear from them.

Grannyknot

When my DDs were at school, one academic year apart, they were taught in different ways. The younger loved writing and was told not to worry about spelling or grammar and became a prolific scribbler. Her sister, on the other hand, was so worried about being corrected that she would not write anything without checking it first, which spoilt her enjoyment. They both made themselves understood, that is what counts!
I wish this thread had not been started when it is so obvious where the error was spotted, I hope the poster's enthusiasm will not be dampened. I, for one, wouldn't wish her to change.

Another one which has stayed with me is 'fewer horses make less dung,

Live and let live, I say. It would be a shame if posters were put off because they thought they were being judged lacking in grammar when they were looking for support.

I said live and let live, apart that is from the woman from the Probation Service who was on Breakfast this morning who said something could cause offending behaviour to 'escalate down'

Actually, DH just pointed out that she said 'esculate down' [evenmore emoticon

DS teaches German and French, and, in a Y10 class one day, he had his laptop linked up to the whiteboard when his BiL popped up, and addressed him in the bloke-y language they use with one another. Class was rivetted for the first time ever, BiL embarrassed, DS highly amused.

My grandaughter (6) loves reading and her spelling is really good for her age. Her teacher is learning them little ways of remembering complicated words, her most recent favourite is BECAUSE

Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants

mamie ad she was in her nightie, on her bed, surrounded by her menagerie of dogs, calling my name. OMG I wish I hadn't reminded myself about it. [cringe emoticon]

I am a staunch believer that a forum is an informal means of communication and therefore should not be too closely scrutinised for errors. I spend a lot of time checking and rechecking some things I have written but would not want to have to get every sentence polished on GN.
Also that some people are dyslexic and cannot always spell correctly.

I am a staunch believer in people not taking offence when only helpfulness is intended.

I wrote 'there are a great number' in a recent post, and I know it should have been 'there is a great number', but because I'm generally quite confident about my spelling and grammar it doesn't bother me if I make the occasional faux pas (although an 'edit' facility would be useful!).

I don't know how I'd feel about having my persistent spelling error made the subject of a thread on here, though, particularly if I was not that confident to start with. I agree with Shysal and Kitty that it would be a great pity if posters were put off because they think their posts are being checked for spelling and grammatical errors.

I know that I am rubbish at both spelling and grammar and if I don't care why should anyone else?