Go missing

Go missing

“Go missing.”

When something goes missing, it disappears or becomes lost. And when we use “go missing,” we imply that there’s a little mystery involved.

“Go” is a verb, so it needs a subject. And the subject—the thing doing the action—is the lost item. So if you say, “My keys went missing” it means, “my keys are lost.” I can’t find my keys.

You can use “go missing” with things that are small, not very important, and you can use it with things that are important.

Let’s start small. “I think my keys went missing.” That simply means, “I think I have lost my keys.” To say something “went missing” is a way to deflect blame a little bit. “I lost my keys:” if you say that, you put the blame squarely on yourself. “I lost my keys.” But if you say, “my keys seem to have gone missing,” it adds a little mystery to the situation. What happened to them? I don’t know; it’s not my fault they went missing.

A common way to say this is to say something “seems to have gone missing.” This is a way of saying, you don’t know what happened to something; it’s lost; you’re not putting the blame on anyone.

So if you comment to your spouse, “The keys seem to have gone missing.” That’s a way of saying: “I didn’t lose the keys; I’m not accusing you of losing the keys. I’m just observing that they are lost.” The keys seem to have gone missing.

So that’s the way to use it with something small. Sometimes, though, you can use “go missing” to imply that something dishonest has happened, usually with something more valuable.

Imagine that you rode your bicycle to work. You parked it outside the office and you locked it up. You went out for lunch at 1:00; you saw your bike right where you left it. But when you left the office at 6:00, the bike was gone. You might talk to the security guard or file a police report. They might ask you, “What time did your bike go missing?”

And you might answer, “It went missing sometime between 1:00 and 6:00.”

“It went missing” here is a way of implying that something bad happened, without saying it directly. Probably someone stole it. We don’t know for sure. If you say, “it went missing,” there’s a feeling of mystery. What happened? Did someone take it by mistake? That’s unlikely if you locked it. But did you remember to lock it? Maybe you can’t be 100 percent sure. So if you say, “my bike went missing,” you’re not quite saying that someone stole it. But you’re implying it.

Hundreds—maybe thousands—of items from the British Museum went missing . The museum suspects—highly suspects—that a former curator stole the items and sold them on eBay. But this has not been proven. There was no trial. There was no evidence on camera. There’s good reason to think those items were stolen. But a safer thing to say is, “Thousands of items went missing over the years.”

That means, maybe they were stolen, probably they were stolen. But maybe some were lost. Maybe some were just discarded accidentally. But they are not where they should be. They should be in the warehouse, but they are not. “They went missing” is a great way of saying, “they are lost, under mysterious circumstances.”

Finally, you can use “go missing” for people and pets. How many times have you heard a story like this? “Our cat went missing five days ago and just turned up on our doorstep tonight, as if nothing had happened.”

The cat went missing five days ago: that means the cat disappeared, the cat didn’t tell you where he was going, and you didn’t see him leave. But he’s usually home at night, and for five nights he wasn’t. He went missing five days ago. You might say, “He went missing on Sunday night, but came back on Friday.”

Likewise with people, if someone has disappeared, you might file a report with the police. The police might come to your house and ask, “What time did she go missing?” That means, “Approximately when do you think she disappeared?”

See you next time!

That’s all for us here at Plain English. I hope you enjoyed today’s story. I hope you learned some new words.

And as always, if you’re a Plus+ member, then you can practice using “go missing.” Just go onto the transcript of the expression, and find the practice area. Write your own example using “go missing” and I will personally reply with some feedback. That way, you know you’re using it right.

If you’re not yet a Plus+ member, you’re welcome to join us at PlainEnglish.com/Plus .

We’ll be back next week with two new episodes. See you then.