Read rhymes with lead, and read rhymes with lead, but lead doesn't rhyme with read and lead doesn't rhyme with read.

They never did. Their spelling, meaning, and pronunciation are the same as they have always been.

I mean yeah 'loose' could probably be pronounced like 'choose' and it would still make sense, but it absolutely wouldnt make sense for 'lose' to be pronounced like 'moose' or 'goose'. Im not sure what you even mean when you say they switched meanings either because thats just false.

The bigger problem is that lose should rhyme with pose or close. Loose is fine.

It's a lose/loose situation

they are very different in my mind. perhaps because i first came across them in their respective contexts through reading.

even when speaking, to me, lose rhymes with booze and loose rhymes with goose.

this has never been a problem for me, personally.

Loose rhymes with noose. I can't think of a word that's spelled and pronounced like lose so you have me there.

choose lose cruise booze

all rhyme lol

Wait, if they swapped meanings and then swapped spellings then doesn't that mean they're the same as before?

May as well combine words with the same pronunciation into one word and call it Simplified English (/s)

Honestly tho, this is one of the features of Simplified Chinese, which created the infamous "fuck vegetables" (干菜类).

It's meant to say "dried vegetables" (乾菜類 in TC), but 乾→干. Meanwhile, there exists 幹→干 as well, which means "fuck".

english is a very silly language that's evolved so you can do almost anything with it

it's a risky strat but it seems to have worked

Loose rhymes with Goose

They didn't, except among the ignorant and autocorrect.

It's a miracle I know it, and having to teach someone how to read and spell was an eye opener for me trying to explain "this is like this except for this one word because... Reasons and sometimes there's a variation like this because...reasons" so many times.

English is idiosyncratic as hell. Didn’t someone famous call it “not a language but 3 languages in an overcoat.”

Adding to this specific instance is that even native speakers spell things wrong. They loose their keys, etc.

What about the words that are only different in tone.

Content and content

Trust me, it is equally frustrating for most Americans...or almost, anyway.

Are you familiar with “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité?

Deep breath:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos

*purpoose

Yeah it should be looz / loose

If we start now, we can probably switch the pronunciations of Aristotle and chipotle within a generation.

Chip-ot-el

Okay TIL that these aren't pronounced the same.

Lowe's loose lows lose loss.

Obviously the plural of foot is feet, so the plural of book should be beek.

Or one sheep should be a shoop.

There's also the English Vowel Shift. Which means words either side of it are inconsistent.