Every. Single. Day. This. Happens.

I read a *LOT* of online technical documentation. Come to think of it, I read a *LOT* of documentation offline as well. I also occasionally read things like blogs and comments and stuff. In all of my reading, I have found that the most prevalent mistake made by the writer in terms of grammar and spelling is using the word “loose” in place of “lose”. So here’s the rule:

“Lose” is a verb, as in “I will lose my job if I do that”, or “Please lose my number”. Other forms include “losing” as in “I’m losing my mind”, and the ever-popular “loser”, as in “That Anonymous Coward is such a loser”.

On the other hand, the word “loose” is an adjective, as in “he’s got a few screws loose” or “that development team has somewhat loose morals – I’ve seen them at conferences”, or “loosely coupled”.

How about this: if you want to describe loss, lose the extra “o” — copyright me, today.