Went missing?

[glorria]

In the past several years it has become common to use "went missing" instead of "is missing". The woman's daughter went missing Sunday. This is irritating...is it correct usage?

[Anglika]

An awkward construction, and as irritating as "fell pregnant"

[Coffa]

Originally Posted by glorria

In the past several years it has become common to use "went missing" instead of "is missing". The woman's daughter went missing Sunday. This is irritating...is it correct usage?

I don't see anything wrong with it myself, but these are two different intransitive verbs ('to go missing' and 'to be missing'), not different tenses of the same verb.

You can't say: "The woman's daughter is missing Sunday." It's ungrammatical unless 'Sunday' is the object and the transitive verb is 'to miss' in the present continuous tense. You could say: "The woman's daughter has been missing since Sunday."

Alternatively, "The woman's daughter went missing (on) Sunday." seems OK to me as an example of the past tense of the intransitive verb 'to go missing'.

[glorria]

Thanks Coffa and Angilika. Yes, the example would have to be changed to "has been missing since Sunday". I've never heard the "fell pregnant" phrase, but have heard "fell ill" or "fell sick".