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There is a sentence: Negative comments were left out.

Can I say: Negative comments were missed out. ?

What is general different between miss out and left out ?

I'm not sure which tags I should include. Is collocation OK?

James121
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    Hi Jakub. What did you find when you looked up the two expressions in a dictionary? If you can explain what you found and what your remaining uncertainty is, it will help us to provide an answer for you. For further guidance, see [ask]. :-) – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Oct 17 '18 at 09:16

3 Answers3

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  • Leave out means to fail to include something or someone; omit.

  • Miss out means to fail to use an opportunity to enjoy or get an advantage from something.

If you say:

Negative comments were missed out.

That means that someone lost an opportunity to give negative comments.

And if you say:

Negative comments were left out.

That means that someone failed to include those negative comments somewhere else.

Ahmed
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Negative comments were left out.

Those comments were not included at reproduction of the material (for any reason, maybe intentionally).

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/leave-out

Negative comments were missed out.

Accidentally, those comments were (appeared to be) not included.

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/miss-out

Alex_ander
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Were left out is correct.
*Were missed out is ungrammatical. That's what the asterisk means.

The phrasal verb leave out 'omit' is transitive, and therefore can occur in the Passive construction.

  • They left out the book's index.
  • The book's index was left out.

The phrasal verb miss out 'lose (an opportunity)' is intransitive, and requires a transitivizing preposition on when it indicates the opportunity that was missed.

  • *They missed out the party.
  • They missed out on the party.

Since it's intransitive, miss out can't be used in the Passive.

  • *The party was missed out.

The example sentence given,

Negative comments were missed out.

is ungrammatical because negative comments is not an opportunity (so missed out should not be used at all); and also because miss out can't be used in the Passive.

John Lawler
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  • -1: Google gives plenty of hits for "were missed out" including sites (in a tour), fences (in a race) and achievements (in a list). – Vicky Oct 17 '18 at 14:32