# 'Turned up missing' and 'went missing' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2001, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773 "2001-06-06T05:21:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![straykat23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@straykat23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straykat23)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773/1 "2001-06-06T05:21:16Z")
Was I in a coma when this was explained in Sister Anunciata’s grammar class? Have heard these two phrases several times within the last few months (NBC news, America’s Most Wanted, etc.) and wonder how they came to be acceptable forms of speech. I classify it with “She done gone,” but I may be wrong… ---
**Author:** ![gadgetgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c5a1d2/32.png) [@gadgetgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gadgetgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773/2 "2001-06-06T08:21:00Z")
Ya know, I never heard the term “went missing” till I moved to Australia. Or maybe I just didn’t hear it before now. I always get this image a place called “Missing” where all of the lost people go. But I don’t know where it somes from. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773/3 "2001-06-06T10:32:36Z")
Yeah well blame the good ol’ Aussies for all the ills of man. But you may be right. How M’Ginnis Went Missing by A. B. “Banjo” Paterson Let us cease our idle chatter, Let the tears bedew our cheek, For a man from Tallangatta Has been missing for a week. Where the roaring flooded Murray Covered all the lower land, There he started in a hurry With a bottle in his hand. And his fate is bid for ever, But the public seem to think That he slumbered by the river, 'Neath the influence of drink. And they scarcely seem to wonder That the river, wide and deep, Never woke him with its thunder, Never stirred him in his sleep. And the crashing logs came sweeping And their tumult filled the air, Then M’Ginnis murmured, sleeping, “'Tis a wake in ould Kildare.” So the river rose and found him Sleeping softly by the stream. And the cruel waters drowned him Ere he wakened from his dream. And the blossom-tufted wattle, Blooming brightly on the lea, Saw M’Ginnis and the bottle Going drifting out to sea. The Bulletin, 21 September 1889 The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses 20 October 1895 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773/4 "2001-06-06T12:47:07Z")
How about “found missing”? “I looked for my keys, but found them missing.” ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773/5 "2001-06-06T12:54:37Z")
Personally, I would say that they were discovered to be missing. Or even better: “I looked for my keys, but they were missing.” ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773/6 "2001-06-06T13:08:53Z")
I always though “turned up missing” was something of an oxymoron. If you turned up, how can you be missing? The “went missing” is new to me, too. It doesn’t sound right at all. She went where? Huh? I think “is missing” is better. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773/7 "2001-06-06T14:35:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kinsey \* > **The “went missing” is new to me, too. It doesn’t sound right at all. She went where? Huh?** **Went missing** Went is the past simple of **go** So ‘Went missing’ makes sense in that something is missing because it has gone somewhere (no longer here). It will **go** missing if **went** missing **Turned up missing**? Yeah, what Kinsey said. But **dantheman** ’s solution is least ambiguous. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773/8 "2001-06-06T14:39:53Z")
compare: **Went wrong** doesn’t mean there has to be a place called ‘wrong’ [hijack] (_is_ there a place called ‘wrong’) [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turned-up-missing-and-went-missing/67773/9 "2001-06-06T19:40:31Z")
I’m not an Aussie but a Yank, one who tends to say “gone missing.”