dorothy  +  11937 Sat, 01 Nov 03 03:27 PM For a year or so I have been hearing people on television use a very strange way of putting things that is getting on my nerves. I would like to know when this started and why. A good example of this is when they say "She went missing". It sounds so very strange. For some reason it sounds exceedingly ignorant to me. What is wrong with "She is missing". We don't really know where she went. More and more people are picking it up and using it that way.Thank you, Dorothy dorothy Joined on Sat, Nov 1 2003 New Member 04

	Woodward  +  11962 Sun, 02 Nov 03 08:30 AM This use has been around for a long time and you will also find it in a dictionary. It means to become absent from home and impossible to find. This is mostly used with people and animals (pets). It's sometimes similar to 'disappear'. Woodward Joined on Tue, Jun 24 2003 A New Zealander in Chile Senior Member 2,747 Don't let schooling interfere with your education. www.grammar.cl - www.vocabulary.cl

	dorothy  +  11976 Sun, 02 Nov 03 11:47 AM I'm afraid you are wrong - this has not been being used everyday as it is now. Actually it came from people who speak Bohemian. They also refer to their hair as them instead of it."Went missing" is very bad English. Dorothy dorothy

	ryan smith  +  12013 Mon, 03 Nov 03 03:26 AM www.m-w.com give us this: "go missing: chiefly British : to become lost : DISAPPEAR" Since went is the past of go, "he went missing" appears to be accepted (at least by m-w). ryan smith Joined on Tue, Sep 9 2003 CLASSIFIED Full Member 199

	Woodward  +  12014 Mon, 03 Nov 03 04:04 AM Thanks Ryan. Dorothy, you should remember that there are many types of English from around the world, not just what you learn in your own country. There are many times where I have learnt that there are ways of saying things that at first don't sound natural since they aren't used in my home country (New Zealand). The more you have contact with native speakers from other countries, the more you see that English is not just ONE type of English (or even two for that fact as many students believe there is only American and British English). There are many varations of it. Woodward British English

	dorothy  +  12030 Mon, 03 Nov 03 02:09 PM You can say: She went to the store. He went to the opera. But she went missing still sounds strange. Where is "missing"? Dorothy dorothy

	trellis  +  12032 Mon, 03 Nov 03 03:00 PM Where is "missing"? Missing is a place that is not here and not known, I guess? I would say, "She is missing", but I have heard "went missing" many times. I think that maybe sometimes it could be used like a slang phrase. Such as when educated people say "ain't" to affect the tone of their speech. I suspect, though, that many people say "went missing" naturally and not intending to be affected. I guess that it has become yet another one of those colloquialisms or vernacularisms that any colours every language. The USA is filled with people who emigrated to there from every part of the world. Their native non-English languages affected their use of English syntax in many ways and their descendants inherited these interesting but skewed ways of speaking. The New York City area is especially filled with unusual jargon and inverted syntax as a result of this. Then it ends up getting picked up as the local dialect by everyone in the city. Then it ends up as dialogue in tv and movies. Then people all over the world who are learning English from entertainment media pick it up too. Such is the evolution of language. I guess. :p trellis Joined on Tue, Oct 21 2003 Full Member 397 Dialects, Learning English, Colloquialisms

	ryan smith  +  12067 Tue, 04 Nov 03 05:10 AM I don't know why you guys are getting all wound up about this. The word "go" has more than 20 meanings in my dictionary, many of these relating to so-called figures of speech. Where is missing? It's somewhere that I haven't thought to look. Where is away? It's somewhere that I am not currently located. We can say "go away," so why not "went missing?" Compare: "After she went missing, I called the police." "After I noticed that she was missing, I called the police." ryan smith