Loss vs. Lost – It’s Not as Hard as You Think!

Loss vs. Lost

Why are these confusing? Anyone from an entry-level writer to an intermediate or advanced writer might mix these two words up, and the reason is quite simple. Both words deal with the same thing, losing, and they sound alike.

Lost vs. Loss

• Both lost and loss deal with losing.
• Lost has more grammatical functions than loss. Lost can be a verb or an adjective.
• Loss is only ever a noun.

When to Use Lost

Lost, in the English sentence, functions primarily as a verb. If a team losesthe game, you might say that they lost the game. Additionally, if someone loseshis or her keys, you might say he or she lost the keys.

In this role, lost is acting as the past tense and past participle form of the verb to lose. The verb is inflected as lose > loses > lost.

Lost Conjugation Rules:

• I lose.
• He loses.
• They lost.

Lostcan also function as an adjective, where it adds descriptive features to nouns.

When to Use Loss

Lossfunctions solely as a noun, which is helpful is identifying the word to pick for your sentence. If you need a noun, loss is your only choice.

If a company fails to make a profit, it might incur a financial loss. If a friend of yours passes away, you might feel a sense of emotional loss. In both cases, loss is acting as a noun.

Example Sentences Using Lost and Loss

• Loss as a noun: Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan, blamed “errors, sloppiness and bad judgment” for the loss, which stemmed from a hedging strategy that backfired. –The New York Times
• Loss as a noun: In recent years, study after study examining exercise and weight loss among people and animals has concluded that, by itself, exercise is not an effective way to drop pounds. –The New York Times
• Lost as an adjective: Up to £20bn of retirement cash could be sitting in accounts unclaimed by up to 1.6m members, according to new analysis which sheds fresh light on the scale of the UK’s lost pension pots problem. –Financial Times
• Lost as a verb: I lost the first good novel I ever wrote to a computer disaster. –NPR.org

Although these words deal with the same subject, they are used differently in English sentences. Luckily, they are easy to keep track of, so let’s review:

• Lost is either a verb or an adjective.
• Lost is a noun.