Miss or missed: What’s the difference?

Similar words in English can a huge difference in what you want to express. There is a lot of misinformation surrounding this topic. Let's have a look on a pair of similar words, miss or missed .

Basically, there are two main uses of the word "miss."

One is all about human emotions, and the secondary meaning is failure to do something.

We are going to cover them all here so that you know how to use miss or missed properly in different situations.

When to use miss or missed in addressing emotion?

In this case, we will be guiding you to use miss or missed in a phrase to adress emotion. The phrase “I miss you” or “I missed you” is used when you desire to see someone after being separated for a long time from someone who was very close to you before. The only difference of miss or missed is that the former is present tense while the latter is past tense. Below are two examples.

1. You have been separated from your loved one for a long time. In this situation, you can say, “I miss you,“ when having a phone call with him, and hopefully you will hear, "I miss you too," from your loved one in response.
2. You see your loved one at the door waiting for you after coming back from a long trip, you hug her or him, and say, “I missed you so much!“
3. You may have to move to another city for work, and you can’t come back anytime soon. Then you tell your loved one, “I’m going to miss you a lot."

The use of miss or missed with the event or action.

In the following part, the word “miss” is not related to human emotion. You simply miss an event, action, or someone because you forget. There could be many reasons for this. Below are some examples.

1. I had a flight ticket early this morning to New York yesterday, but “I missed the flight“ because I overslept.
2. “We have been missing rugby matches on and off because we are always on the road and don’t get to watch them on TV.”

“Miss call” or “missed call”

The following will teach you how to use miss or missed when you fail to answer a phone call. “Missed call” is the correct answer. Unless you say, “I’m going to give you a call tomorrow, make sure you don’t miss it," So basically, you have missed the calls on your phone because you didn’t answer them. The following are two examples of miss and missed call.

1. Perhaps your friend tells you that she called but you didn't answer. Then you would reply, "Oh, yeah, I got a missed call from you this morning."
2. When you meet a new friend at a bar, he may ask, "Can I have your phone number?" and after you save their number, you may say, "Let me have yours too, give me a missed call!"

We believed you were familiar with and understood the use of miss or missed after going through the information above. Use it frequently in your daily communication or writing so that you can remember it. Lastly, here is a bonus lesson: Please subscribe with us so that you don’t “miss out“ on our upcoming articles and course promotions.

Vist Big Ben Academy - English Course Malaysia to know more information if you wish to improve your English proficiency.