If you keep one of these straight, then the other will be okay.
Lose (verb)
- the “z” sound. It “lost” its extra “o,” just like “lost” only has one “o”
- verb, the opposite of “win” or the opposite of “find” (with four letters like “find”)
- the word “verb” has four letters; the word “lose” has four letters
Loose (adjective)
- “loose as a goose” has the soft “s”
- an adjective meaning “not contained”
- the word “adjective” is longer than four letters; “loose” has more than four letters
- as a verb, it means “to release,” also the soft “s”
Whichever system works for you! :>)
Loosen (verb)
“Loosen” is the verb that makes something loose.
Examples:
- The loose goose flew over the loose moose.
- (“loose” rhymes with both “goose” and “moose”)
- Whose key did you lose?
- (“lose” rhymes with “whose”and “lose”)
- They loosened the knot to let the moose loose.
- (“loosen” makes it not tight)
- We hoped the Broncos would not lose the game. (They didn’t!)
- (“lose” = not win)
- The loose mouse ran around the house.
- (“loose,” “mouse,” “house” all have the soft “s” sound)
- After Thanksgiving dinner, he had to loosen his belt.
- (“loosen” = let it out a notch or two, making it not so tight)
Credit: Photo by Michael Dziedzic, Photo by Rebecca Campbell on Unsplash
