I have this sudden urge to update this blog, to just write stuff in it again, you know? So here I am -- but I have completely no idea what to say.
The new semester is starting again next month, so that's that. More challenges coming our way this year, I suppose. I've been meaning to review our course materials before the semester actually begins, but I haven't really done that yet, xD. One thing is for sure, though: it's going to be one hell of a semester!
Well, course materials and tough semesters aside, I think I may have a topic to blog about now. I was reading fanfictions late into the night last night, and I found this one fanfic that has a good plot, good style of writing, and an appropriate amount of fluff. But it's obvious that the author did not have a beta reader (read: "a person who goes through your work of fiction and fixes it where in needs fixing, before the public gets to see it."), because even though most of the time their grammar is impeccable, other times, I'd find some mistakes in their word usage -- they'd mix up the words with other words that sound alike, but ultimately have different meanings. So, after a while, I did get a bit...annoyed, if you may -- but I just decided to ignore those and continue reading.
So I guess for today's post, I'd talk about some words that have the same pronunciation (and maybe even the same spelling), but ultimately have different meanings. Ready? Set? Okay, GOOOOO!
1. Lose vs Loose
Lose: verb
Be deprived of, or cease to have or retain something
Synonyms: miss, waste
Loose: verb, adjective
Verb:
Set free; release
Synonyms: untie, undo, loosen, release, unfasten
Adjective:
Not firmly or tightly fixed in place; detached, or able to be detached.
The reason I picked these two words first is because the author in the aforementioned fanfic had confused these two words frequently, and had used the wrong one when they meant the other. It really jumped out to me and it was one of the things that caught my attention.
Of course, being a fanfic of the romance/angst/hurt/comfort sort, the story contains a lot of dramatic sentences such as,
"I don't want to loose you."
"Because it wouldn't do to loose their temper now."
"...and hoped that he wouldn't loose his head."
Here, you can see that the author had used the wrong word Instead of using the verb 'lose,' in all three examples, they had instead used the verb 'loose.'
When they wrote, "I don't want to loose you," all the character is really saying is, "I don't want to untie you," which, I am sure, isn't what the author's really trying to say at all, considering the sentence is found in a scene where one of the characters had just escaped a near-death experience, and so his other half mentioned, "I don't want to loose you." So anyone can easily guess that the author meant the other, similarly pronounced word, "lose."
In the second example, if we were to replace the word 'loose' with its synonym, we would get a sentence that roughly sounds like this: "Because it wouldn't do to unfasten their temper now." The correct term, "to lose one's temper," is, in fact, an idiom, which means "to become angry at someone or something."
And in the last example, by replacing 'loose' with one of its synonyms, we get the sentence, "...and hoped that he wouldn't untie his head."
I guess it's understandable how someone could confuse these two words. Besides, the only difference between them is an extra 'o' in the spelling. I don't know how to really make it easier for anyone to differentiate between 'lose' and 'loose,' but I'll try:
A simple way to distinguish between these two is by converting your sentence into past tense, if you can. If not, make a simple sentence in past tense. Hopefully you'll see the difference better, because I think the word 'lose' is much more recognizable in its past tense -- "lost." (And it helps that there is a famous TV show by that title...remember Lost? That confusing series about a bunch of airplane survivors stranded on a mysterious island? Yes, that one.)
The past tense for 'loose,' on the other hand, is 'loosed.'
If you're confused and wondering if your sentence should be, "Did you loose your watch?" or "Did you lose your watch?" then try to make one simple sentence in the past tense, and try out one word, then the other. For example, in this case, where you don't have your watch anymore:
"I lost my watch." (Sounds about right, yes?)
"I loosed my watch." (...Nope.)
Hence, in this case, it's, "Did you lose your watch?" and NOT, "Did you loose your watch?"
One more tip is to remember this:
To LOSE something means something along the lines of, "You don't have it anymore." (Because you don't have the extra 'O,' like in the word 'loose.')
To LOOSE something means to untie, or unfasten, something. To make something that was firmly fixed into place, less so. For example, to loosen your tie.
And because I am bilingual, you Malays are lucky -- by definition:
1. Lose: kehilangan
2. Loose: longgar
Okay? Okay!
2. It's vs Its
Can you tell me what's wrong with this sentence?
It's: a contraction for "it is" or "it has."It's not a surprise that people often get mixed up when it comes to these two, mainly because we use it's more frequently than we use its, and sure enough, more often than not, people would mistakenly use it's instead of its, instead of the other way around.
Its: possessive pronoun meaning, "belonging to something."
Let's see these two in action, shall we? Hopefully we'd be able to see the difference.
The correct way to use it's and its:
"It's so cold in here." (The full sentence: "It is so cold in here.")I'm going to hazard a guess here: the reason behind the confusion between it's and its is the usage of apostrophes when you want to indicate something belongs to someone. I'll try and explain:
"It's been a while!" (The full sentence: "It has been a while!")
"The mug is missing its handle."
When you want to say that the book belongs to George, you'd say, "That's George's book," right? You simply put an apostrophe and an 's' after the name George, to indicate that it belongs to him. Hence I think some people would conclude that since it is a mug, and the handle belongs to the mug, the sentence should be, "That is a broken mug. It is broken because it's handle is missing." (This sentence is wrong, by the way.)
The correct sentence should be, "It is broken because its handle is missing."
A simple way to tell these two apart is:
1. Always remember that "it's" is a contraction for "it is" or "it has." Think of the apostrophe as something that hides more words.
So when you say, "It's handle is broken," remember that the ( ' ) sign is hiding something. Expand it. Replace "it's" with "it is" or "it has" because that really is the full form of it's.
Then, see if your sentence still makes sense: "It is handle is broken." Doesn't make any sense, right?
2. Its is a neuter version of "his" and "her." So whenever you want to say that something belongs to an object or an animal, use its without the apostrophe.
Here, let me just give you a nightmare by giving you one last example:
"This is a clown from the story It. Its face is scary as f***."
Okay? Okay!
3. Worse vs Worst
Lets get down to business!
Worse: use this to compare between two things
Worst: the most awful/inferior thing of them all
When the difference is only one letter, it can be very confusing. I suppose I'll try to make this less confusing...
When something is worse than the other thing, it simply means something is inferior than something else. Use this to compare between two things.
But when you use worst, it is the most terrible thing to have possibly happened. No comparison -- it's simply the most horrendous thing, like, ever.
Okay, examples:
This is a perfect test score:
And the following grade is the absolute worst because it's at the very bottom of the whole grading system, and nothing else is more terrible than an F (there's no G, right?):
4. Because it has happened to me once: British English vs American English
Once upon a time when I myself was an active fanfiction writer, I wrote some stuff and put it up online for others to read. The readers could then leave me reviews if they wished, and one day, I opened a notification e-mail telling me that I've received one new review for one of my stories.
So I went ahead and read said review.
The reader, of course, told me that the story was nice, etc. etc., before trying to "correct" my spelling errors. I tried to look for the review again, but I can't quite find it because I am not sure which fanfiction this particular reader had reviewed.
Anyway, they basically told me that while the story is nice, I have got to correct the way I spelled some words -- "It's dialing, not dialling; it's neighbor not neighbour; favorite not favourite."
And in the end, I had to write a reply politely saying that there is such a thing as British English and American English, and that since I am in Malaysia, I use the former instead of the latter while writing. The reviewer had sheepishly replied back saying that they weren't aware of this.
My guess is: the reviewer must have been either quite young to be unaware of this, or simply an ignorant American. :P
Anyway -- perhaps now is the best time for some definitions? Yes:
British English (BrE): the form of English used in the United Kingdom
American English (AmE): the form of English used in the United States of America
There's no right or wrong "English," really. You can use either, as long as you use one form consistently throughout your work. This is the other reason I brought BrE vs AmE up: the same fanfiction that contains the wrong usage of "lose" and "loose" has inconsistent usage of BrE and AmE in it as well.
The author had spelled words such as "color," "favorite," and "neighbor" without the U, hence, clearly they're using AmE. But then they went on and spelled "foetus" (BrE) instead of "fetus" (AmE).
I guess its just me being really picky here, but hey, you have to be consistent, right?
Trivia: In Malaysia, we use Malaysian English (MyE) or more formally known as Malaysian Standard English (MySE). It originates from British English as a result of the British rule over what is now Malaysia.
~*~*~*~
Well! I guess that's all for now.
Do you think you can distinguish the difference between some of the similarly-pronounced but different words now? I hope my examples are all right -- but this is where I put my disclaimer, I suppose:
Disclaimer:
The blogger is not an English teacher, nor is she currently studying the English language formally. She is aiming to become an audiologist instead, but the fact that she finds "its vs it's" easier to explain than the mechanics of the inner ear is rather alarming.
She should start reading about the auditory system again, don't you think?
