7.06.2012

Gone missing


I read an informative article on Writer's Digest about "grammar hang-ups," and as a non-native English speaker I must say "hang-ups" are a constant in my writing, especially because I'm not the best at memorizing rules. I usually have to edit the heck out of my manuscript and my editor would still find little mishaps that she probably wouldn't in a native's manuscript.

I thought "gone missing" was a particularly interesting one, because it reminded me of the many idioms I had to familiarize myself with when I first arrived in the U.S.
Things like "until the cows come home" and "head over heels" don't make sense when we translate literally to Portuguese.

The article explains: Gone missing is a Briticism that has made its way to the U.S., where reporters use it mostly to describe missing persons. Although journalists and newscasters seem to love gone missing, it’s easy to find vocal readers and viewers who hate it.

Haters argue that a person must go to a location, and missing isn’t a place, and that an inanimate object can’t go missing because it can’t take action alone—but English has never been so literal. 

Amen to that!

Even if you hate gone missing, you can’t legitimately criticize it as grammatically incorrect. But on the flip side, if you’re a fan of the phrase, be aware that it annoys enough readers that you should think twice before using it in your writing.

Read the entire article here.



2 comments:

  1. It reminds me of when I was first learning Spanish. Getting familiar with the sayings was even more difficult to me than conjugations. ^_^

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