Linguistic Malpractice

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Living in the Mind's Eye

LINGUISTIC MALPRACTICE

exclusively by janet goodrich

Lime

To say he or she "went missing" is grammatically irresponsible.

Went is the past tense of the verb go.

No one can "go" missing.

To depart: he went, she went or they went.
To lose something or someone it is missing, she/he is missing.

Either they are missing or they are not.

To go implies an object. She goes to the store.
To the store is a prepositional phrase that is the direct object of 'goes.'

Went is the past tense of go, therefore it needs an object.

Missing is an adjective --it modifies a noun.
Missing is not a place.
Missing is a condition.

One cannot "go to a condition."
One cannot "went to a condition.”

She/he went (somewhere) requires a noun not an adjective.

Go and went require a place, an object.

I go to..., she/he goes to..., they go to...

She/he is missing, was missing (from where).

She (He) was missed (at what time).

Nothing can went missing."
No one can went missing.
Nothing can go missing.
No one can go missing.

She/he is missing.
She/he was missing.
She/he was missed at a time.

They are missing.
They were missed.

One will be missing from my television if she/he keeps murdering the English language.