ive also noticed the word 'loose' being used to replace 'lose'

I am guilty of that one all the time. It is a spelling issue for me as I have never been able to remember which spelling corresponds to which word so I have to look up the definition to be sure. The other pair of words that gets me is 'where' vs 'were'. The strange thing is that in general I think my spelling and grammar is pretty decent, but there is something about those sets of words where the pronunciation is not evident from the spelling (at least to me) that seems to get me.

-Mike