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King Charles has appointed a homeopath. Why do the elite put their faith in snake oil? | Martha Gill
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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As happy as I am to see any royal loose their power, in whatever way is necessary, this will encourage a lot of people to continue to believe that sugar pills will heal them.
“Loose their power” and “Lose their power” have two completely different meanings.
English is not my first language, please enlighten me
Loose (verb) = "to let loose" = "to free" (verb), so "loose their power" implies freeing or expressing their power. (Having power)
Lose (verb) = "to not have any more" (lost), so "lose their power" implies no longer having their power. (Not having power).
"Loose" and "lose" are completely different words. "Loose" is commonly written incorrectly online for "lose", so many English speakers make this mistake when writing it.
Editing to add that "loose" is very rarely used as a verb in the way described - it's archaic and nobody would use it in conversation - it is normally an adjective meaning "not tight". The main thing is to remember that "lose", like "lost" is spelled with a single "o" and "loose", like "not tight" has two.
Oh! I get it now, thank you :) I'm realizing after the fact that the spelling of these have confused me before, now it makes sense why!
Don’t feel bad, the spelling confuses a lot of native speakers as well.
Lose would imply that they no longer had power, in past tense "He lost his power".
Loose would imply that he used his power "He let loose his power"
Or in another context, if you lose your dog, it's gone missing.
If you let loose your dog, it's like you've released the lead, and told it "bite that man in the bum".