This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2490.
Don't miss out on these English grammar tips.
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Can you say you missed something when you have lost it in English?
Today, find out why grammar tenses are crucial in a moment like this one.
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C-A-R-E-E-R.
Hey Aubrey, what's shakin'?
I'm great.
How are you, Lindsay?
Good, Aubrey.
I have a question for you.
You ready?
All right.
Yeah.
So are you a person who loses things easily?
Do you lose your keys, you know, your wallet?
Yeah.
Unfortunately, I do.
I lose things all the time.
And I often, if I take a bag or like a purse to a restaurant, for example, several times like at least half the time I end up having to go back because I left it there.
I have to go back.
It's at.
My part of the problem is inconsistency.
I don't always have it, so then when I do have it, I forget, but it's, it's pretty terrible.
What about?
You do those things easily probably not as badly as me more and more.
Yeah, it's probably not a good thing, but lately my phone it's like where's my phone?
Where's my phone?
I say it three times a day.
You know, just leave it on the couch.
You live on the countertop, you live in the room.
It's like there, where is the phone around the house?
You know?
Yeah, that's me too, So terrible.
Well, this is really interesting.
This was inspired by one of our Q&A sessions about the verb miss.
One of the students said, my son misses his wallet.
And I realized right away what he meant was my son is missing his wallet.
Like he can't find his wallet.
Right.
I'm missing my purse.
I can't find it.
And it was such an interesting conversation about how we don't actually use present simple tense to say we can't find something with miss.
Kind of fascinating.
So interesting.
And by the way, we love this weekly Q&A that Aubrey does with all students in any of our courses.
So you are invited if you are in a course that qualifies for Q&A.
And if you are in the level that qualifies for Q&A, which is the personal coach level.
You are invited to join us on, when do you do it?
Wednesdays, Aubrey?
Yes, it's Wednesdays morning, my time.
And the students who come bring questions about what they're learning in their course, about what their questions about English, and they're always very interesting questions.
We always have an amazing discussion every time.
So good.
So think about getting into one of our courses, guys.
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Yes, absolutely.
So this is going to be interesting.
This verb has many meanings in English actually, but the meaning is different depending on the verb tense, which is a little more rare for a verb in English.
Often, when you have all of these different meanings for a verb, it's like sort of all the same meanings for the different verb tenses.
This is rare.
Yeah, I'm excited for this.
So we're going to really dig into this and make sure our listeners understand.
Again, we're taking the grammar angle today because we know grammar is important.
And obviously here it's really important, right?
Yes, absolutely.
Okay, start us off, Aubrey.
Where do we start?
All right.
So first we're talking about the present simple tense and the most common meanings of the verb miss.
That can be that you know that the present tense could mean.
So, for example, here's our first meaning to fail to hit catch, reach or come into contact with something.
For example, I miss the bus whenever I wake up late.
Right.
But this would also be like he missed the ball.
He missed something.
Every time he tries to hit the ball, he misses, right?
So present simple to fail to catch something or hit something.
Love that.
And then what is a second meaning in the present simple?
To notice the absence of someone or something and feel sad or regretful about it.
So, for example, I miss you or she misses living in New York.
And this is kind of what it sounded like when you hear the student said, my son misses his wallet.
What we're going to interpret that is we're going to know it's like it's not what you meant.
But what we're going to think is, you mean emotionally misses his wallet, right?
Because we don't say we miss a wallet, right?
We use in present simple.
If we miss someone or a place, we can miss something.
It's because we feel their absence.
We feel sad or regretful.
There's emotion involved.
I guess you could say, oh, I miss that old pair of jeans I used to have.
They were so comfy or that pair of shoes.
But it's something that just carries a lot of nostalgia, a piece of clothing, for example.
Yeah, that's true.
That's a really good point.
You can say this like I miss something.
I'm sad I don't have it anymore.
But if what you mean is I lost it, I can't find it.
You can't use the present simple for that.
It doesn't mean that.
Exactly.
And the next meaning for this in present simple is to fail to attend a or to experience something.
So, for example, can you send me the notes when I miss class, so you don't show up to class, so you miss it.
Exactly, right?
And the last one, to fail to understand or perceive something.
For example, if you read too quickly, you might miss the deeper meaning of the article.
I love it.
Okay, so those are the four meanings of miss in present simple.
What if we use present continuous, Aubrey?
Yeah.
So this is where we can say that we can't find something.
You know, if you're not able to find something, you could say, I'm missing my phone.
Have you seen it?
But I couldn't say, I miss my phone.
Have you seen that would be like, I'm so sad I lost it.
It wouldn't mean I can't find it.
Exactly.
And again, here's what we needed to say.
My son is missing his wallet.
He can't find it anywhere.
Exactly.
So to say you can't find something.
This is really interesting where in a dictionary it might just say you know miss to not be able to find something, but it's not going to break down for you that that has to be in present continuous tense.
It could be past tense, but when we're in present tense, you can't use present simple.
So tricky.
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
Anything else we need to know here, Aubrey?
Yes.
So when we use the verb miss in present continuous, there are other meanings, of course.
So you just need to pay attention to the context to find out what the meaning is.
So some of these other meanings we covered, they can also be in present continuous.
For example, to fail to attend, see or experience something.
If you say, oh, I'm missing class today.
Can you send me your notes?
It's another way of saying I am going to miss class today.
We can also say that in present continuous.
Yeah, we might also say, I'm going to be missing class today, right?
There are a few ways we could say that, technically speaking, or to fail to understand or perceive something.
Again, you're missing the point, right?
You're missing, it's happening in this moment.
Yeah, so unfortunately-
Whenever you see the word missing, you can't assume that means something is lost.
Someone can't find something, because still this verb miss, even in present continuous, there are quite a few meanings.
So it's always vital to pay attention to context.
What do they mean?
If someone says, you know, my son misses his wallet, you know what they actually mean, right?
You know, just like I did, I'm like, oh, I know what you mean.
Unfortunately, we have to use the right verb tense to make sure our meaning is clear.
Love it.
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Okay Aubrey, let's break it down into a role play here, so we can make it super clear for our listeners.
What's happening here?
All right.
You and I are friends meeting for lunch in this role play.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Here we go.
Good to see you.
It's been a while.
What happened last weekend?
You weren't at the game.
Yeah, I missed it.
My alarm didn't go off.
And by the time I got there, it was already over.
Well, we missed you.
Oh, how did David do?
He actually didn't play.
I guess he's missed the ball a lot in practice, so the coach didn't play him.
He'll get there.
Hey, I've been meaning to ask you.
I'm missing my cell phone charger.
Did I happen to leave it at your house?
I haven't seen it, but I'll keep an eye out.
Ah, the charger is another thing that tends to go missing sometimes.
Yes, mine goes missing a lot, but it's because my children have stolen it.
Like I know that one of my kids took my charger.
That can happen too, for sure.
All right, let's go back and we'll explain kind of the usage of each of these.
So first you said you weren't at the game.
What happened?
And you said, sorry, I said that.
And then you said, yeah, I missed it, right?
I failed to attend.
So simple pass there.
Exactly.
I wasn't there.
I failed to attend.
Well, actually, this is the most common thing that we would say.
Oh, I missed it because I wasn't there.
I wasn't able to go.
And then you said, well, we missed you.
And this means you noticed my absence.
Right.
And you're kind of sad.
This doesn't mean you lost me.
You couldn't find me.
Right.
This is that other meaning of to notice the absence of something and regret it.
And that right there would be another great episode.
The connection skill of noting that someone wasn't there and you knew they weren't there and it's regretful right.
We missed you or we're sorry you weren't able to be there.
That's such a good point.
Look at the connection that's built just by you saying, well, we missed you.
You didn't have to say that.
You could just continue the conversation, but like there's so much care and I would really feel like oh, that's so nice.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Let's do an episode on that one, Aubrey.
Guys, hit the follow button so you don't miss that episode that will be coming up soon.
Okay.
And then I said, you asked about David, how he did.
And I said, he didn't play.
I guess he missed the ball in a lot of practices.
So the coach didn't play him.
Right.
So that's that fail to catch or hit.
Right.
If you say miss the ball, this could be any sport with a ball or you try to hit it and just miss, or kick it and you just miss.
Right.
That's another meaning of this verb.
Love it.
And then you said I've been meaning to ask you, I'm missing my cell phone charger, meaning I can't find my cell phone charger.
Exactly.
And this is the one where you cannot use present simple.
You couldn't say, I miss my cell phone charger.
Did I happen to leave it at your house?
This has to be present continuous.
That's a chunk that we use to say, I can't find something.
I've lost it.
I'm missing my cell phone charger.
Yeah.
And that's the key one right there.
So incredibly important to know the difference here.
Aubrey, is there another episode our listeners should go to?
Yes, don't miss 2485 right here on the All Ears English podcast.
Are you practically fluent in English?
This was a really interesting deep dive into how we use practically to connect in English.
Love it.
So good.
And a lot of takeaways could come out of today.
I mean, first of all, it's really good if we can find the bonus opportunity we had today.
Commenting the fact that someone wasn't there is a bonus.
We'll come back to that another day.
But Aubrey, what is the core takeaway from today's grammar episode?
Yes, it's interesting that sometimes the grammar tense of a verb affects its meaning.
And if you use the wrong tense, you could cause a misunderstanding.
Someone might not understand, right?
So you can use today's tips to avoid misunderstandings.
Make sure you're using the correct verb tense when you want to say you've lost something.
I'm missing it.
Love it.
So good.
Great topic.
And thank you to our student for being in Q&A.
We get lots of good ideas for our episodes inside our Q&A.
So guys, check out our courses at allersenglish.com.
All right.
Good stuff, Aubrey.
Talk to you soon.
Have a good day.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Bye.
Bye.
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