this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Loose and lose. I just don't get it. I can understand when the words sound the same, like with the yours and the theirs but Loose and Lose don't sound the same. Like reading loose out loud in those sentences just sounds stupid.
I think it's because English isn't super consistent with the spelling of vowel sounds. Consider also "choose" (rhymes with "lose") and "chose" (which doesn't rhyme with either).
I guess really the vowel sound in loose/lose is basically the same; the difference is whether or not the "s" makes a "s" sound or a "z" sound... It is admittely odd that the presence or absence of an extra "o" would affect the sound of an adjacent constant (especially when we have a perfectly good "z" character available).
Which reminds me of my pet peeve: when people use "breath" or "cloth" instead of "breathe" or "clothe".
There's no phonetic reason, the double oo and single o make the exact same sound in most dialects and there's no reason the s should sound like a z in lose.