Properly I miss you is Mi manchi. For example for give a more strong romantic effect you could say.. I miss you.. like (something) I miss you like the air that i breathe (come l'aria che respiro).. or you can explain completely your feeling. Sometimes is better. Less complications and less misunderstooding. ciao
Nimrod is right: "Mi manchi" is the most common way. You can also say: "Sento la tua mancanza" "Ho nostalgia di te" I'm pretty sure, that if you use the "search" tool, you'll find lots of previous threads about this particular expression.
Mostly a clarification of pronoun usage I guess. I want to say "They will miss him the most". My attempt: "Loro lo mancarano il massimo". E' giusto? Grazie in anticipo.
This looks more like HE will miss THEM. I thought the action goes with the verb "he misses" would be manchera', and "they miss" would be "mancheranno". If not, I'm going to have to go back to "pronouns 101". Sorry.
He will miss them is "Loro mancheranno molto a lui" or "lui sentirà molto la loro mancanza". They will miss him "Mancherà loro tantissimo" or "loro sentiranno moltissimo la sua mancanza". The problem, as I wrote before, is that it works exactly the other way round compared to the English "He will miss them" or "They will miss him". We express something like "They will feel the lack of him" or "he will feel the lack of them". Any clearer?
LO2W, as you become more familiar with piacere, you will understand mancare better, too. To say: I like the books, you must say: Mi piacciono i libri. The literal translation of Mi piacciono i libri is The books are pleasing to me. To say I miss them, you must say Mi mancano. Mancare literally means to lack. Mi mancano is literally They are lacking to me. For your sentence, think: They will miss him/He will lack to them. Hope that helps.
How would you say - "You miss me like a hole in the head" - meaning someone does not miss you at all? Thanks.
Hello KittyKat, I think that's an idiom isn't it? You can translate it literally "Ti manco come un buco in testa", one would understand the meaning, but that sounds a bit weird in Italian. Ciao G
Hi Grtngs - yes it is an idom. Is there a similar saying in Italian that sounds better or appropriate. In essense trying to say that you are not being missed at all. Thanks.
I don't know such an idiom in Italian, but you can use a similitude. "Mi manchi come una lavanda gastrica" depending on how vulgar, funny or witty you intend to be. Invent.
Of course, but English speakers are never content with the literal for sayings like these in English and are always looking to add the same colorful twists in Italian, too!
I have heard "I miss you" said like "Li manco" Is that right? Beacause I have also heard it said "Mi Manchi" Which one is better/proper?
I've never heard 'Li manco'. You can say: mi manchi = I miss you mi mancate= I miss you lei mi manca molto = I miss her a lot ti manco = you miss me ti manco? = do you miss me? And so on.. Ciao
This thread, it seems to me, is a classic example of what happens when folks try to 'translate in code'. I suggest that the simplest way not only to understand a construction like "mancare" (and "piacere",suggested above as similar)but also to begin to comprehend it is to learn to disengage oneself from idiomatic English. Between every language and every other there is an invisible and often unrecognised third language which contains the words of the one and the idioms of the other. It is not necessary with languages geographically and culturally close to each other - like Italian and English - to spend a lot of time thinking in this third language but there are times - and this is one of them - when the student should consciously think in this third language. For native English speakers this third language would have English words and Italian idioms. I suppose, if you wanted a label for it, you could call it "Itanglish" or "Englalian". Using it an English person would learn "mancare" as meaning "to be lacking" (its actual meaning) and would dismiss from the mind anything like "to miss". Seeing "Mi manchi" would therefore produce the mental response "You are lacking for me" (I'm assuming, of course, a student who knows enough syntax to recognise a dative from an accusative). From "you are lacking for me" to "I miss you" is - or ought to be - but a step. Even better it is a step that need never be taken. The student might even begin to be able to think in the target language. The same rule applies to "piacere". It does NOT mean to "like" - at least not in modern English - but "to be pleasing" A student for whom "Ice-cream is pleasing to me"(Mi piace il gelato) does not mean mentally (preferably without 'idiomatizzation') "I like ice-cream", should take up some other hobby. Get the central meaning of a foreign word right and then let your native language take the strain and your imagination do the rest. It works - with a little regular practice. I don't know if all this means anything to anyone else but for me it works a treat! Best wishes Virgilio
We usually (dare I say, always?) hear English speakers say how difficult this "inverted" construction of mancare and piacere is. Rarely do I see/hear Italians make the same comment about miss and like. Is it easier to grasp in the other direction, I wonder?
lsp, Don't know how it is your side of the pond but it is fairly apparent to me that the current Italian schooling system has higher aspirations for its pupils than the British one. Naturally those aspirations are no doubt often left unfulfilled but, you know the old saying "If you aim at the moon, you'll hit the tree". But what if you only aim at the tree?. I dare say it will change. Virgilio
Actually...to be more precise I could have a kind of translation for "li manco": if you are missing something or someone but not emotionally but materially...like you are playing a game and try throwing something to someone (or you want to kill someone)...well if you miss them...'li hai mancati' (past)!! BYE!
