#002: Understanding Verbs — mancare
The verb, mancare, means “to miss” (in the sense: “to long for”). In English, we could use it in the following ways:
I miss my parents.
She misses her mother.
I miss you.
Mancare functions in the same manner as the verb, piacere — with an indirect construction. When used with this indirect construction, mancare takes essere in compound tenses (passato prossimo, trapassato prossimo, etc). This means that the person or thing being missed is the subject of the sentence while the ‘misser’ (that is, the person doing the longing, missing) is the indirect object:
Mi mancano i miei genitori.
I miss my parents.
As you can see, my parents is the subject of the sentence and determines the form of the verb. When the object is a noun and not a pronoun, follow this simple construction:
A Giovanni manca la sua ragazza.
John misses his girlfriend.
Here are two common expressions using mancare:
Mi manchi.
I miss you.
Ti manco.
You miss me.
However, when one misses a train, a bus, an airplare, the verb perdere is used:
Ho perso il treno.
I missed the train.
NB: See the comments of this post for more helpful suggestions and information on this verb.
last updated: 15 June 2008
Facebook
RSS
Twitter
Email
Mi manchi. = I miss you.
Ti manco. = You miss me.
Are you 100% the order is not confused?
Mancare is one of those strange verbs that is conjugated in this odd way. Remember, that with mancare, the subject of the sentence is the person/thing being missed, which determines the verb to be used, while the person doing the liking is the indirect object:
I miss my parents.
Mi mancano miei genitori.
My parents miss me.
Ai miei genitori manco.
(In Italian, when the indirect objcet is not a pronoun, it is preceded by the preposition, a.
The examples should properly be:
Mi mancano i miei genitori. (requires article before genitori)
and
Manco ai miei genitori. (order is reversed) or even
Manco ai miei. (genitori is understood).
Cynthia
smilingeggplant.blogspot.com
Thanks, Cynthia!
I did make a mistake in my comment, but it is correct in the actual post
Thanks for pointing out my mistake.
How come “I miss you” is “Mi manchi” while “I love you” is “Ti amo”? Shouldn’t “I miss you” be “Ti mancho” if “I love you” means “Ti Amo”? Or maybe “I miss you” should be “Mi manchi” and “I love you” should be “Mi ami”.
How come “I miss you” is “Mi manchi” while “I love you” is “Ti amo”? Shouldn’t “I miss you” be “Ti mancho” if “I love you” means “Ti Amo”? Or maybe “I miss you” should be “Mi manchi” and “I love you” should be “Mi ami”.
Mancare when used to mean ‘to miss’ someone or something is used like the verb, piacere. The usage is a bit odd. Why is it this way? I can’t really say, but with many things in Italian grammar, this is just how it is.
Remember, the subject of the sentence in mancare is the person/thing being missed, and not the person doing the missing:
I miss you.
Subject = person being missed (you)
Object = person doing the missing
Mi manchi.
I miss you
Thanks for this Keith. This construction has always puzzled me, and you’ve explained it very clearly.
You could put it like this:
Mancare really means someting like ‘to be a sad loss’.
So “I miss you” becomes “You are a sad loss to me” or “Mi manchi”.
“She misses my kisses” becomes “My kisses are a sad loss to her” or “Gli mancono i miei bacci”
Ohh my! You got me really confused here..
Can somebody tell me what “mi manca l’aria” means??
Thank you!
Hi, I just wanted to thank you for this mancare verb explanation. This helped me a lot because I was so confused about 'mi manchi.' I just couldn't get it, but now I do (after reading that it's used like the verb piacere). Anyways thank you so much!
so how do you say "He misses you"
Gli manca a te?
He misses you. = Gli manchi.