I miss you!

How do you say it in Italian?

Mi manchi!

Words you should know	Mi (to me) + mancare (to miss)
When to use this	With 1 person you’re familiar with
When NOT to use this	With strangers (doh!) and groups

For example, you can say…

Mi manchi tanto, Andrea. Torna presto.
I miss you so much, Andrea. Come back soon.

Mi manchi! – Mi manchi anche tu, amore.
I miss you. – I miss you too, love.

In this case, mi translates the English “(to) me”. Literally this would be “To me you miss”! Manchi is actually the second person singular conjugation of mancare, to miss, in the present tense.

Mi mancate!

When to use this	With a group of people
When NOT to use this	With strangers (doh!) and 1 person at a time

In Italian, unlike English, there are two kinds of “you”. There is a singular “you” and then there is a plural “you”. If you’re speaking to a group, you’ll need to conjugate any verb or pronoun accordingly, and don’t forget the gender!

This is why we’ll say mancate, instead of manca, to talk to more than one person.

Mi mancate, ragazzi. Ci siamo visti l’ultima volta tre mesi fa.
I miss you guys. We last saw each other three months ago.

Mi manca!

When to use this	With 1 person you’re NOT familiar with
When NOT to use this	With friends, family and groups

When speaking formally, Italians address each other with the subject “she”, lei. Use Lei in the written form if you want to be very polite.

Although, I wouldn’t really use this polite form with any person. I miss you is something you would say to someone you know well, someone you share a romantic relationship with, or somebody you are fond of.

If you are still using formal pronouns to address a person, it means you don’t know them very well. Telling your boss at work that you miss them could be inappropriate.

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