Learn English – “seem” or “seem to be”

verbsword-choice

I searched for similar questions within a website, but ended up with one without a solution.
Which expression is correct or better? Both sound weird to me.

  • The solution seems missing.
  • The solution seems to be missing.

Best Answer

Grammatically, they are both correct and semantically, either will work, to be being elided in the second case. But yes, something is indeed missing or amiss here.

You didn't say why "Both sound weird to me." I would say the choice of words is inappropriate, which must be why.

seem syn. appear - look - sound
missing syn. lost - absent - wanting - lacking - gone
Naturally, directly juxtaposing seem with missing makes for a weird situation. It is correct, but it tends interfere with comprehension.

Using direct speech is one way out:

It seems the solution is missing.

Parenthesizing the contra word could also help:

The solution, apparently, is missing.

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