I must be careful not to lose vs I must be careful to not lose

Both phrases are correct, but the more common structure is 'I must be careful not to lose.' The placement of 'not' before 'to lose' is the standard form in English.

Last updated: March 31, 2024 • 3804 views

I must be careful not to lose

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

This phrase is used to express the need to be cautious in order to avoid losing something.

Examples:

I must be careful not to lose my keys again.
She must be careful not to lose her temper during the meeting.
You must be careful not to lose focus on your goals.
He must be careful not to lose sight of his values.
They must be careful not to lose track of time.

Show examples from the web [+]

Earlier, I heard one speaker say that we must be careful not to lose our citizens.
We have to be careful not to lose the emotion.
I have to be careful not to lose my footing.
Be careful not to lose your soul.
Be careful not to lose your 10000 francs...
Be careful not to lose his job.
You just got to be careful not to lose your separate selves along the way.
From now on, we must all be careful not to lose the King's love, or everything is lost.
We must therefore be careful not to lose sight of our responsibilities to Central Asia simply because we wish to strengthen relations with countries adjacent to the EU to its immediate east.
Careful not to lose it on the way, Sticky Fingers. It's been counted.
The Americans are no angels when it comes to WTO negotiations and we have to be very careful not to lose out in those negotiations.
But in front of the others, I must be careful not to reveal myself.
[Enid] I must be careful not to make the same mistake.
Into the woods without delay But careful not to lose the way
Be careful, don't lose my tapes.
Be careful, you could lose your fingerprints.
We must be careful not to warn him.
We must be careful not to give him an excuse.
In developing a standard, the Union must be careful not to stifle innovation.
Young girls must be careful not to be bothered by bad men.

Alternatives:

I must be careful to not lose
I must be careful so as not to lose
I must be careful in order not to lose
I must be careful to avoid losing
I must be careful to prevent losing

I must be careful to not lose

This phrase is correct but less common in English.

This phrase is also used to convey the idea of being cautious to prevent losing something, but the placement of 'to not lose' is less typical.

Examples:

I must be careful to not lose my train of thought.
She must be careful to not lose her balance on the tightrope.
You must be careful to not lose your way in the forest.
He must be careful to not lose his patience with the children.
They must be careful to not lose their luggage at the airport.

Show examples from the web [+]

Earlier, I heard one speaker say that we must be careful not to lose our citizens.
We have to be careful not to lose the emotion.
I have to be careful not to lose my footing.
Be careful not to lose your soul.
Be careful not to lose your 10000 francs...
Be careful not to lose his job.
Be careful, don't lose my tapes.
Be careful, you could lose your fingerprints.
Third, we need to increase the use of combined heat and power, and we must be careful that this option does not lose out because of the liberalisation of the internal energy market.
You just got to be careful not to lose your separate selves along the way.
From now on, we must all be careful not to lose the King's love, or everything is lost.
One must be careful to has the advantage in such situations.
In addition we must be careful to avoid tripping up here.
However, we must be careful to ensure that the information is properly calculated and presented.
We must be careful to avoid contradiction here.
Nevertheless, we must be careful to consider which combination of instruments will be particularly effective.
Better. But I must be careful.
She warned me that I must be careful.
Of course, I must be careful...
I must be careful what I say.

Alternatives:

I must be careful not to lose
I must be careful so as not to lose
I must be careful in order not to lose
I must be careful to avoid losing
I must be careful to prevent losing

What Our Customers Are Saying

Our customers love us! We have an average rating of 4.79 stars based on 283,125 votes.
Also check out our 2,100+ reviews on TrustPilot (4.9).

"Thank you!"
Sachi Nakama July 2024
"I have literally been through chat, PI, claude, bard and bing and I got conflicting answers! Thank you! Human intelligence reigns!"
Retha July 2024
"Faster than AI"
CYNTHIA December 2023
"This was very helpful and I personally think this site is the best."
Kaden October 2023
"It was extremely thorough and very helpful!"
imperialelisa October 2023
"7 years without any disappointment. Always 100% satisfied. You guys are the best in the world at what you do. Thank you so much :)"
Zubair Alam October 2023
"In a world of text messages and online communication, this is great to have as a live tool. Thank you."
Selena October 2023
"Without textranch I would be stuck!"
宏祐 October 2023
"Accuracy and fast response. Personal comments from editor. Thank you."
Clh September 2023
"I wasn't aware of this service, it's fascinating and more reliable than standard IA tools available on the internet"
Arturo September 2023
"The fact that you can get reliable fast feedback on your texts."
Vinicius Antonio August 2023
"you guys are better than grammarly i'm being honest here"
ordinary July 2023
"OMG! This is really good than any other text correction tools I've used so far. Highly recommend this."
Vehan July 2023
"Very fast and accurate. thank you."
mojtaba July 2023
"I love this app because it's help to writing skills all of students ♥️"
Tarisini July 2023
"This was exactly the mistake I was looking for, the wording dind´t sound right at first. Better than grammarly!"
Ente July 2023
"The immediate help that I received was reassuring and very satisfactory. Thanks."
priiiyanshuu July 2023
"this helps A LOT for my studies."
kathnunez02 June 2023
"Woow!! I would never have expected such precision! Thank you soooo much!!"
Berta June 2023
"Real Time Editor and not AI. Many Thanks."
Priya June 2023
"The very first thing excites me about Textranch is how much your editors care."
sepideh June 2023
"The fact that texts are checked by human editors rather than by AI, etc. I appreciate this!"
Анна June 2023
"Feel welcome, immediate response, high quality feedback"
martin.roy June 2023
"This is the best app that I have ever seen"
Burulai May 2023

I must be careful not to lose vs I must be careful to not lose