No. It couldn’t be. Not here, of all places. But there it was, in black and white, on page 38 of the one bastion of standards in which I still believed, the Mail & Guardian. “The opening of the Gautrain”, reads the sentence in question, “has only marginally dented OR Tambo’s R230-million parking income, loosing Acsa an estimated R2-million per month.”
Yes, even the M&G is now guilty of the greatest grammar and spelling sin of our time — worse than the rogue apostrophe that infests the possessive its, worse than the confusion of they’re and their: the spelling of lose as loose.
Lose is pronounced looze, loose as loosssss. How hard is it to get that, people? Really? Has everyone just become stupid? I have to wonder because 10 years ago I seldom, if ever, saw this mistake but now it’s everywhere — in emails, advertising copy, on news websites and now even in newspapers. (On that point, standards at the M&G are slipping: on page 42 I found “Just the thought of a black man being whipped by a white women doesn’t feel right for me.” It didn’t look right to me either.)
It’s cultural, of course, and it’s reached a point where the lose/loose confusion has become a de facto meme, an insidious and highly contagious virus of the mind spreading from one instance of misuse to the next. A simple and obvious spelling error has become so widespread that there has arisen the distinct and awful possibility that we’ll fling up our hands and just not bother to correct people any more.
Which brings me to my question: does it matter? Spelling is just a matter of convention, surely? So why get one’s knickers in a knot? Why not just change the rules?
And yet the rules matter. Spelling and grammar are bulwarks against chaos, the basic guarantees of mutual comprehension.
Let this one slide and eventually everything unravels. Spelling lose as “loose” is sloppy and lazy and people who do it should have their arses kicked to next week until they remember to get it right. Don’t give people free rein to do what they like. Now, increasingly, spelled as “free reign”.
Don’t get me started.
Although, in a way, I sympathise with the writer, I am more inclined to accept all these deviations from “proper English”. As a second (third?) language English speaker, I sympathise with mis-spellings. If I did not had a spell checker, I would be lost completely. English has a weird and confused way of mixing spelling and pronouncing. Not only that, the English themselves are not sure about the where and when of things.
With 90%(??) of SA people not born with English as their home language, what do you expect. SA has 11 different official languages.
Born Dutch, I listen daily to Afrikaans and realize how a lanuage can change and move from the original. A German listening to Dutch, will probably have the same feeling.
It seems mostly the English speakers, who do not speak any other language, that fall over wrong accents, intonation, conjugation and spelling errors.
Please guys, this is the “language rainbow nation”. Listen, smile and try to understand each other. We need languages to communicate, no matter how and what you speak in whatever language.
Another one that is creeping in all over the place and which drives me straight up the wall is the Afrikaans derived ‘has’ construction for the perfectly good English past tense:- “Graham Smith yesterday has scored 20 runs”. Why not, “yesterday Graham Smith scored 20 runs”. English, unlike Afrikaans has a full set of tenses, let’s use them.
The purpose of good grammar is to prevent misunderstanding Benzo, not to be purposely pedantic. Clearness of thought and language is the essence of good communication. If you think it’s only English speaking people who carp about this, try mangling the French language and come out alive. In my experience Europeans speak very good English and take great pride in getting it exactly correct, and rightly so. Sure we’re a rainbow nation, but please people, make a bit of effort. It seems as though people have just given up on getting the apostrophe right. Any word with an s on the end now gets an apostrophe. “Who let the dog’s out?” honestly!
The influence of non English speakers is no doubt great, but I think we need to be very concerned. I think people (also English speakers) can’t spell any more. They camouflage it by using sms language everywhere. It is happening in all the languages. Afrikaans is not spoekn properly any longer, even by the news readers and reporters on TV and radio.
And then there are those Greek and Latin words that have found their way into English. Given their need for inflection, an English spelling checker won’t correct their usage. So we have, to cries of despair from classicists, ‘media’ (plural of ‘medium’) and ‘criteria’ (plural of ‘criterion’) used with the singular form of an English verb. Hopefully the classicists join me in laughing at ‘ad nauseum’ because nausea is what it produces. But enough. Best not to go on ad nauseam.
There’s been a spirited defence of 2nd language speakers, with people cutting them a lot of slack including letting them get though their exams with poor English (at varsity level nogal) if they are otherwise competent. I disagree, at that level their English should be at least good, if not perfect.
When it comes to earning your living with the English language then it has to be perfect, here I refer to radio & TV announcers in particular. We hear the language raped by these folk on a daily basis, they literally broadcast the stupidity of AA programs and ‘jobs for pals’ for all to hear. I agree with MLH that the SABC should reserve a nation-wide radio channel for native English speakers, it would go a long way to reducing stress levels, prejudices and anger, as well as being a model for younger folk. Fortunately there are a few regional channels which still employ native speakers and even if their content leaves a lot to be desired they do help preserve one’s sanity! Sadly the few young blacks who do speak flawless English are often viewed as coconuts and mocked or disadvantaged by their peers.
One last aspect to be considered WRT falling standards on the internet: We’ve never had to do so much typing so useful abbreviations will become part of the daily discourse, unless software like Siri (iPhone) becomes ubiquitous, making all this typing superfluous! Ain’t that gr8, m8?
“I have to wonder because 10 years ago I seldom, if ever, saw this mistake but now it’s everywhere”
10 years ago the MMM (Moronic Mindless Masses) didn’t have ready access to the Internet. Today they do.
There is an inverse statistical correlation between intellect and the propensity to confuse “lose” and “loose”
A source of daily irritation. Don’t blame South Africans, the English Englih is no better.
Sorry English
Another thing that appears to be creeping in is the sloppy Americanised version of “I couldn’t care less”. In the last year, I can’t count the number of times I have heard it articulated as “I could care less”, especially from American talk-show hosts and writers.
Don’t people even think about what they’re saying, particularly when they are saying the complete opposite of what they’re attempting to convey?
Damn – it’s so annoying.
Language is just a medium of expression and communication. For most of us English is a second or third language. The fact that we can communicate in it, is a resut of hard work. As long as we understand each other, no worries. So why loose your mind on it!!!!
1. Blame spellcheck! (correctly spelt but wrong word)
2. How about SMS speak being used in FB postings (e.g. Tym for time)
One thing that always impresses me is the quality of the English in letters written in days gone by. I have some original letters written by a murderer on Death Row in 1957, in the month or so before he was hanged, and there’s no one correction, not a single wrong spelling and no bad grammar in any of them. This was a man with a long criminal record and years in reformatories and prisons behind him, not an intellectual or academic. Surely he had good reason to let the “trivial” things slide as his execution drew nearer?
The private letters of people like G.B. Shaw, Mark Twain and other great thinkers are fascinating to read for the clarity of thought they demonstrate and the preciseness of the language they used. How many modern writers, using texting and e-mail, take the trouble to get things right? Yet we can cut, paste and alter copy without leaving evidence of the errors. They would have had to rewrite the whole thing or leave the ugly blemish of a correction on the page for posterity. They rarely did.
Yeah, loose usage can lose proper meaning. It’s a shame that a language can get its basics loosened up like that. Got any loose change to lose? Of course, a spell checker can wreak havoc with meaning, especially if it’s in its automatic mode. I would welcome it if people would pick their dog’s (or dogs’ ) up in public places. No, they needn’t carry the canine(s), ,just their droppings. There.
We all is loosers
And another one that gets right up my nose is ‘swop’ versus the correct ‘swap’. Even the Americans aren’t even making this mistake : it appears to be uniquely South African.
Heh. Bad proof-reading of my own post. The last sentence should have read :
“Even the Americans aren’t making this mistake : it appears to be uniquely South African.”
Sorry!
CAN WE ALL PLEASE STOP SELLING THIS FLUFFY CRAP AS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP.
Nitpicking on a person’s spelling doesn’t take great thinking or brains. All it requires is anal retention.
FFS … get some REAL journalists in here. What’s next from this dummy ? Food reviews ?
Yes, Sarah is riight to claim “the rules matter. Spelling and grammar are bulwarks against chaos, the basic guarantees of mutual comprehension”. The ignorant or lazy accuse her of pedantic.
Language is a living entity, and needs to be understood in that context. It is for ever changing. Only the bean counters become so judgemental, yes, their orthodoxy sucks. In the end, they loose out! (yes I spelled it that way).
I totally agree. I am black and I feel disgusted at the level of grammar and spelling mistakes I encounter on a daily basis. Yes language is for communicating but why leave it to me to figure out what you meant? I always try to speak my own African language flawlessly too. Its important. Why accept mediocrity?
@ Dick: Spelling and grammar are bulwarks against chaos, the basic guarantees of mutual comprehension”.
Am I pedantic when saying that traffic rules (and sticking to them) is more important than spelling rules and sticking to them?? Spelling mistakes do not kill!!
I have come to stop correcting the “visum” for “visa”, the “another alternative” and others. It has become SA speak.
Ever “corrected” the Chinese and Japanese directions for use coming with many of their products?? Still got it working though! Comprension was fine despite the crummy and sometimes amusing language.
And while we’re at it – what has happened to pronouns? We are being depersonalised, turned into ‘human resources’, presumably more easily to be disposed of. I cringe every time I hear someone talk of ‘the girl THAT’ did something. Whatever happened to WHO? And the poor reflexive pronoun ‘ME’. People seem to think that it is incorrect to use ‘me’ as in ‘this is a photo of my father and I’. It’s so easy to see if you are correct for not: would you say ‘here is a photo of I’? No, of course not. Sadly song lyrics use it to help with rhyme, and even the BBC does it nowadays, not to mention copy editors who should know better. Happily, Hugh Bladen has corrected his bad habit, but I wish people would think before they speak. Rules really do matter or else we all end up sounding ignorant.
Clarrisa, that is my pet hate too. People do not think what they are saying. English is not my home language, but I really value the correct use of any language, be it English, Afrikaans or German. “Between you and I” is just simply sloppy: why were these people not taught the proper use of “ME” and “I” in primary school as I was? I shudder to think that this avoidance of the reflexive pronoun “me” in everyday speech because of ignorance of grammatical rules could become Standard English in time.
I think Bethwell has hit the nail on the head – it’s the slide into mediocrity that is disturbing.
If you’re going to do something, do it properly. Grammar is important when reading and writing, obeying traffic rules is important when driving.
Bad Grammar and Bad Spelling are NOT the same. The rules of apostrophes and punctuation are NOT hard to learn, though nowdays the rule of not ending a sentence with a preposition is regarded as outdated.
French is a bad example – their rules are so strict that the language is still 17th century and has not modernised or adapted at all.
@ Benzo: ‘had’ should be ‘have’; ‘lanuage’ is spelt ‘language’
@ Pieter Pretorius: ‘spoekn’? – interesting…
@ nguni: ‘WRT’? – ugh, okay; ‘Ain’t that gr8, m8?’ – me I like, I like!
@ Simba: you made your point with the exclamation marks!!!!
@ Toronion: and we heard you too!
@ Dick: here’s your ‘being’ sir, you left it behind…
@ Bethwell: It’s… nice to be important but more important to be nice. (you’re forgiven)
@ Lyndall Beddy: you would have made for a not-too-shabby grammar teacher… err… doll.
@ myself: you shouldn’t use ‘at’ like that, son.
@Percipient….Love your summary
)
Just one more on comprehension. Government “speak” often refers to problems as “challenges”.
In my books a challenge is something one can accept and address or not. A problem is something that has to be addressed. My comprehension of the words.
Initially, I thought the use of the word ‘challenge” for a problem was a euphemism to avoid panic amongst the popuation. Changing my comprehension of the word.
Over time I have learned that the Government indeed sees a problem as a challenge which can be addressed or not. In many cases the challenge (as in problem) has indeed not been addressed.
In hindsight, my initial comprehension of the two words was right, I moved to the new comprehension to find out that my initial comprehension was indeed correct.
Could this mean that comprehension has little to do with spelling but more with consistent wrong use of the word?
I like this conversation. A lovely waste of time around the inconsistencies in the various levels of required accuracies between English language speakers.
I prefer French anytime. As Lyndal says: “French is a bad example – their rules are so strict that the language is still 17th century and has not modernised or adapted at all” and then follows to protest against the ongoing modernisation of the local flavor of English. And….we have not even got into the awfull pronounciation by the English of the Roman alphabeth: a=e, e=i, gh=f (but not always…..)
With spellcheck nobody should ever spell any word incorrectly.It`s just plain stupidity.
Good on you, Sarah.
It’s okay for lone and lowly individuals to make mistakes, but not publishers. Sure, languages evolve. Nothing wrong with that. In my youth, “show” used to be spelt “shew”. No harm done. But the propagation of mangled meanings for existing well-established words and phrases is a crime akin to corruption, littering and pollution. Like the air, the land, the seas and our societal norms, language is a common heritage. It belongs to all of us, and I, for one, look to the supposed experts and “thought leaders” for example and guidance.
Language is a tool for communicating; and if a badly spelt, unpunctuated, string of words gets a message correctly between intended parties so be it.
That being said, the chance of successful communication (where the idea or thought in my head ends up in yours in the form that I intended) is improved with well constructed and clear language.
The balance is how ‘right’ do I need to be, and indeed what is ‘right’.
The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité: http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html
Lose vs loose, I don’t really mind. But why can’t people spell practice properly? And that vs which – really!
Ah, Kingsley Amis was right when said that language pundits were either berks or wankers (prescriptivists or descriptivists to the rest of us).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/27/martin-amis-father-english-language-kingsley
Percipient
Er….actually I did use to be a grammar teacher, teaching English as a second language. Which did not improve my spelling…….reading all the children’s bad spelling does not help!
Benzo
Have you read “Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson ? He explains why French is stagnating, while English is adapting.
@Lyndall: “Have you read “Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson ?”
No, I did read some of “Down Under” but did not finish.
Being from the US, living in the UK and US, Bryson’s French might just be a little shakey and his opinion prejudiced.
I never heard a French looking for words to express an opinion. I also know that Begium French, Congolese French and Mali French have adapted quite nicely to their local environments.
How is your French??
Talk about knickers in a knot!
Benzo
“Mother Tongue” is NOT just about English and French but about ALL languages and how they develop.
For instance it explains why Africa has only 2 creoles (Afrikaans and Swahili) and the difference between a creole and a language like fanagalore.
Interestingly Japanese correlates to no other language on earth.
And the native language of Madagascar relates to a language found only in Borneo.
And just to point out:
The word ‘pronounciation’ does not exist in the English language.
‘Pronunciation’ does.
There is also the good old ‘to’ versus ‘too’. error, or am I just to fussy about the second “o” ? Does it need too be there?
we must learn more and moore.. ^_^
On lunch. Wilted crushed sandwich.