never to be heard from again

[joham]

He disappeared on a cold night, never to be heard from again.


One of my teachers searched the BNC and says 'never to be heard from again' as an adverbial (the result of 'disappeared' ) is not of British English usage. Is that so?

Could I ask British native speakers to help me please? Thank you in advace.

[BobK]

He disappeared on a cold night, never to be heard from again.


One of my teachers searched the BNC and says 'never to be heard from again' as an adverbial (the result of 'disappeared' ) is not of British English usage. Is that so?

Could I ask British native speakers to help me please? Thank you in advace.

It is normal British English usage - if perhaps a little dated. I would use it, but my children might only use it in a mock literary way. The phrase is not the result of "disappeared"; it reinforces it. "He disappeared that night [so finally and utterly that he was] never to be heard from again."

In your teacher's defence, it's worth pointing out that BNC is not a huge corpus. (It is very useful, but... Any corpus is limited.)

b

[konungursvia]

I agree with Bob. But we do hear it in AE too.

[joham]

Hi, BobK and konungursvia, thank you both very much. I'd like to further the question a bit. Could we say 'He disappeared that night, never to be heard from since then'?

Thank you again.

[konungursvia]

Never again works well, but never since then doesn't.