Jose Carillo's English Forum

Joe Carillo's Desk => You Asked Me This Question => Topic started by: clementejak on May 29, 2012, 06:01:52 AM

Title: will hell break lose!
Post by: clementejak on May 29, 2012, 06:01:52 AM

This was posted in a blog site;

"will hell break lose" seems to me it is not right.

It should be "will hell break loose" isn't it?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks

Title: Re: will hell break lose!
Post by: Joe Carillo on May 29, 2012, 06:26:20 AM

You’re absolutely right! The statement “will hell break lose” mistakenly uses the verb “lose,” which means “to be deprived of,” for the adjective “loose,” which means “free from restraint” or “disconnected.” That statement should therefore be corrected to “will hell break loose.”

This could be simply a typographical error or a case of misspelling, but there’s a big world of difference between “lose” and “loose” grammatically and semantically.