Wednesday, December 27, 2006

No one told me...

...that "loose" now means "lose." As in "Every time I loose power I loose my phone line" or "Don't loose your keys." This is now rampant. And no, Candidates, I'm actually not talking to you; this is directed at you, Co-Workers.

Is this a thing now? Like "it's" when it's supposed to be "its"? Something that is about to become so goddamn ubiquitous that there's no point in getting worked up about it anymore?

There should be some kind of memo that goes out monthly that outlines the Grammar Battles No Longer Worth Fighting so that I can better know when to waste a rise in my blood pressure.

2 comments:

Deb said...

"Loose" is a pet peeve of mine and I see it often. I can't say too much though, I've been guilty of itsing when I'm supposed to be it'sing and vice versa.

Proofread.Proofread.Proofread.

tbd said...

Well, honestly, “it’s” for “its” IS so ubiquitous now that I really think it should just BE the possessive. You see it too much for it not to start to become an easy mistake to miss yourself even with the best of intentions. Tons of people who DO actually know better do it all the time, I find my grip on it slipping daily, and let’s face it: it’s not necessarily a totally intuitive rule. So I think I am at the point of “Is this the battle to fight?”

In six months I will probably catch myself habitually typing “loose” when I meant “lose” and then I will decide to surrender to that too.