I took the following bit of text either from Xitter, (or whatever it’s called these days) or possibly from Substack. It contains one of the word usage/spelling issues that always triggers my edit mode.
This is a fragment from the sentence I want to edit: “They both loath my work and admire my skill at doing it . . . “
Do you see the error?
Here’s another error from a recent lesson in my Sunday school quarterly: “Stephen would probably be loathe to put his story any closer . . .”
Do you see the error there? It’s possible that I noticed these the two related errors on the same day.
Loath and loathe are easily confused. However, they are pronounced differently, they are different parts of speech, and they mean quite different things.
The word loath is an adjective, and it means “reluctant.” The final th sound in the word is pronounced like the ending th in cloth or bath. The word loathe is a verb, and it means “to hate or despise. The final three letters of loathe are pronounced like the final the in bathe (which is a verb) and clothe (also a verb). I hope you can see a pattern here!
Here are other examples in a similar vein:
Think about the difference between the word teeth (a noun) and teethe (a verb). Teething (teethe+ing) is what happens to babies at a certain age, which usually results in crankiness.
Breathe is a verb, and breath is a noun. When you inhale and exhale air, you breathe. If you breathe outside on a very cold day, you can see your breath.
a cause I fear is lost. Every time that an AI agent predicts typing or transcribes speech without correction, destructive patterns are reinforced. Novelty of expression suffers. Definitions lose validity. Copy editing and proofreading are dying.
Thank you. I recognize a compatriot in
a cause I fear is lost. Every time that an AI agent predicts typing or transcribes speech without correction, destructive patterns are reinforced. Novelty of expression suffers. Definitions lose validity. Copy editing and proofreading are dying.