14

For many it will be surprising but it is true in India! Often, a person calls on his friend's cell phone and cuts before he picks up. Most of the times it is a 'mutually understood act!' The reasons for that range from saving money to simply notifying someone.

Example: Say, A tells B that once he reaches the venue, he will give B a miss call so that B should understand that A has reached. There is no need to talk or to text because the purpose is just to notify that A has reached! Simple and witty!

Now, on the cellphone of B, it is surely a missed call as it reads '1 missed call from A'. Because it is recent past...so it is 'missed'.

But, I wonder in this case, what do we use?

Okay, when I reach the venue, I'll give you a 'miss or missed call?'

It is a future tense where the call is 'yet to be missed!' That way, it should be 'a miss call,' but my instinct still says it should be 'missed.'

Maulik V
  • 66,059
  • 109
  • 310
  • 456
  • 1
    I regularly make the 5-hour drive to visit my nonagenarian parents. I always make what I call a 2-ring call when I'm about half-an-hour away (I hang up after two rings, and they don't bother moving towards the phone until it's rung at least three times if they know I'm on my way). I don't think their phone sees this as a "missed call" (that status only applies if it's unanswered so long that the answerphone kicks in). – FumbleFingers Jun 09 '17 at 13:47
  • 1
    In the UK I would say "I'll give you a missed call", or a fairly common slang term: "I'll prank you". –  Jun 09 '17 at 13:56
  • 1
    We must understand missed to have a particular unusual meaning in order to say I will send you a missed* call. In idiomatic English, a missed* call is one the receiver misses, not the one the caller plans. It means "not answered by the person called". It's like saying "I'll give you an unheard shout." – TimR Jun 09 '17 at 14:00
  • I would probably say "I'll ring your phone when I get there." but I don't typically use that "call and hang up" technique, so I don't know how well that would be understood. – ColleenV Jun 14 '17 at 13:01
  • If the receiver will intentionally not answer the call, you could also say, “I’ll give you a call to miss.” That implies the receiver will actively not answer the call. – gen-ℤ ready to perish Jun 17 '17 at 06:20

4 Answers4

7

The common term is

missed call

Since the type of call is intentionally not to be answered (usually the caller will hang up after a ring of two) and it will show up as "missed" on the recipients phone.

The term is widely used in the UK.

I will give you a missed call when I am there.

SovereignSun
  • 25,028
  • 40
  • 146
  • 271
Peter
  • 66,233
  • 6
  • 65
  • 125
  • 1
    Missed call is a noun phrase. It essentially means "notification". Consider this: "When I get there, I will send you a text". "Missed call" can substitute "text in here, and "give" is used instead of "send" since it is the proper action verb for calls in general, regardless of whether they are missed or not. – Isa Jun 16 '17 at 04:17
3

It should be 'missed call' because here the verb 'miss' is used as an adjective and we need to use the past participle. Intentionally or not, the proposed call is going to be missed by the person, and therefore, 'missed call' looks more correct.

I will give you a missed call. (That you're not supposed to receive and ultimately it will become a 'missed' call!)

Here is a thread to support my answer.

Rucheer M
  • 3,810
  • 14
  • 38
  • 75
0

The correct form is "missed call". Since missed here refers to a call that one didn’t take, either by will or by circumstance.

If the call rang only once or twice, it may mean that the caller intended a missed call, which allows you a short list of possible reasons.

One common reason is prompting for a call like, “Hello, I need to talk to you but don’t want to use up my credit, so call me back…”.

SovereignSun
  • 25,028
  • 40
  • 146
  • 271
  • I think the author of the quote is from Mauritius. I don't think his English is that good. The article also says "transcript the voicemail message" instead of "transcribe the voicemail message". – DavePhD Jun 14 '17 at 13:01
  • Also, "miss-call" sounds exactly the same as the real word "miscall" http://www.thefreedictionary.com/miscall – DavePhD Jun 14 '17 at 13:17
  • @DavePhD They are pronounced differently. Miss-call has a slight pause whereas miscall doesn't. – SovereignSun Jun 14 '17 at 13:21
-2

I think its 'Missed Call' when a call is missed it named missed call. Then it becomes as a term. Logically no one can give you a missed call, a call will become "Missed" one when not received

Projesh Pal
  • 97
  • 1