Common Mistake: Lose vs Loose (and Miss)

Today's episode focuses on a common mistake people often make in English, and I decided to make an episode about this for two reasons. The first reason is that a listener wrote to me with this issue or problem, shout out to Patricia. And the second reason is that a good friend of mine, who is a native speaker, has made this mistake twice recently, so it has been on my mind. Shout out to Andrew. So let's start the show. You are listening to episode eighty-eight of English with Dane. Hit it.

And let's clear this up, vamos a clararlo, once and for all, de una vez por todas. Luz spelled L-O-S-E means perder. Luz spelled L-O-O-S-E, so double O means suelto. Once again, lose spelled L-O-S-E means perder, and loose spelled L-O-O-S-E. Double O means suelto. Loose with one O is a verb. You lose your keys, you lose your phone, you lose a basketball match, etc. Loose with two O's is an adjective. Loose change, for example, cambio suelto, coins.

Another example, I lost weight, so my pants are loose, double O. The first one single O, second one double O. Again, lose is a verb and loose is an adjective. Before I talk about anything else, I wanted to address or speak about pronunciation. Sometimes students tell me they can't tell the difference or distinguish between the two. Some students insist they don't hear the difference in pronunciation. However, there is a difference.

If you don't hear it, maybe you're not paying attention to the correct part of the word. The vowel sound in these words is the same. The difference in pronunciation is not in the O's. The single and double O in this case again sound the same. Lu and Lu. The same. The key, la clave, is in the S sound. The single and double O actually tell you how to pronounce the S. I'm going to say them back to back three times so you can hear the difference, and then we'll talk about it.

Okay, first perder and then suelto. Here goes. Luz loose. Loose loose. Loose loose. Did you hear the difference? Luz, as in perder, has an S sound that sounds like a Z, okay? Luz. It's like a mosquito. Z. Luz. You are making your mouth vibrate. If your mouth is not vibrating a little bit, at least, you're not doing it right. In English, we call this a voiced consonant sound. In other words, you have to use your voice to make the sound. When I say z, I'm using more than just my mouth, right?

I'm using my voice too. I can feel it in my chest. Now, when I say luz as in suelto, the sound I make is different. Loose. This s sound is unvoiced. We only need our mouths to make this sound, not our voice. Say light in Spanish. Well, maybe not if you're Spanish from Spain because they would say luz, but South American Spanish, luz, luz. It's that same S sound. Again, luz and luce. Now that we are familiar with the difference in pronunciation, let's talk about use, el uso.

I don't think there is a real problem with these two words when it comes to speaking, because even if you pronounce the word incorrectly, people will still understand because they are used in very different contexts. If you say don't loose the keys, everyone will understand.

Maybe if you have a native sounding accent, but you say loose the keys, it might be a bit weird, but if you have a non-native accent, a Spanish one for example, and you say don't lose the keys, nobody will ever know you said the wrong word. However, the big mistake here usually happens with only one of these words, lose, perder. In Spanish we have perder, but in English we have lose and miss. And this is often where the confusion lies. Let's talk a little bit about lose and miss.

We use lose for talking about perder as in extraviar, like we saw in the example before. Don't lose the keys, no pierdas las llaves. I lost my phone, so I can't text them. Always leave your keys in the same place to avoid losing them, etc. So lose as extraviar. We also use lose for not winning. I don't want to play because I always lose. They lost the game in the last two minutes, etc. This use is the one people are most familiar with, I think.

The word loser gets used, se usa, a lot in Spanish among young people nowadays. I had some students that would say vaya lucer, or eres un lucer, things like that. Now the verb miss we use as perder in the context of something happening that you weren't there for or that you didn't witness, que no presenciaste. You miss an opportunity, you miss the bus, you missed the last train, you were watching the game or the match, but you missed the goal or the basket because you went to the bathroom.

So miss for something you didn't get to see. Like I mentioned before, we also use miss to talk about missing an opportunity because you didn't say yes or because you weren't ready, etc. We use miss to say echar de menos or extrañar for my South American listeners. I miss you, I miss working there, I miss living in the city, etc. This last one doesn't generate much confusion, but I thought I would mention it because it's a super common verb to use.

So, real quick, let's go back to lose versus loose and just mention some collocations with each, and then before we finish, we'll also go through some collocations using miss.

So, first to lose, to lose a bet, una puesta, to lose a match, to lose your mind, lose your temper or your cool, to lose an argument or a debate, to lose sleep too, when you're thinking about something or something is worrying you so much you don't sleep, so you lose sleep over it, to lose weight, to lose money, and to lose someone. If someone passes away, we commonly say that someone lost someone. She lost her grandmother last week, for example.

Now let's look at some collocations with loose, as in suelto, loose change when talking about coins, monedas, loose fit when talking about clothes, so the opposite of tight, apretado. I prefer loose t-shirts, for example, loose ends, cabosueltos, right, to tie up loose ends, atar cabos sueltos. There's also the expression to have a screw loose, tener un tornillo flojo or suelto, or que te falta un tornillo, or however you say it. It's basically the same in English, to have a screw loose.

And to finish off, let's look at a few collocations with the verb to miss, el otro perder, to miss the bus, to miss the train, to miss your flight, to miss someone, but not just echar de menos, no solo echar de menos. In this case, it means to get somewhere and llegar, right, a un sitio, and someone just left. Se acaban de ir. You get to a party, but your friend just left. You missed her or him. Back when I was going to the office a lot, I use that one all the time.

Someone comes looking for a coworker, but that co-worker just went to a meeting or to lunch or something, I'd say, Oh, you just missed her. She'll be back in a minute or after lunch or whatever the case may be. A few more. To miss a class, to miss an opportunity or chance, to miss the point is a good one. When someone explains something but they are not addressing or talking about the most important thing, they miss the point.

When giving directions to someone and you want to express that there's no way they won't see what you're talking about, we say you can't miss it. For example, keep going down this road, take a left or turn left, keep walking, and you'll see the shop right next to this really old red building. You can't miss it. I'm sure I'm missing some good ones, but those are some examples of how we tend to use those words. I'm sure some of these will be very useful at work or just in your day-to-day.

Patricia, I hope this clears up the issue you had, but not just Patricia who wanted me to talk about this, but anyone else who was confused by this topic. That's the show for today. Thanks for listening. Next episode comes out on Friday, and it will be my first interview on English with Dane. I sat down to talk to my friend Pierre, who is also an English teacher, and we talked about a bunch of different things related to English learning. So tune in because it should be really interesting.

Support English with Dane by following the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen, as well as sharing it with friends, family, or anyone who you think would enjoy it. Alright, talk soon. Bye bye.