“Mancare” in Italian
Meaning
Mancare is translated in English as “to miss”. In both languages, it is used to express the lack of something – in the sense of the absence of one ore more items or people – or the lack of someone – in the sense of nostalgia of one or more people.
However, their structure is quite different. Let’s have a look at some examples:
Tu mi manchi.
I miss you.
Ci mancano i nostri amici.
We miss our friends.
Conjugation
Mancare is an regular first-conjugation verb. This means that its conjugation is pretty simple, and is similar to that of other first-conjugation verbs like parlare (to speak), cantare (to sing), or mangiare (to eat).
Let me show you its present tense conjugation:
- Io manco (I’m missed)
- Tu manchi (You’re missed)
- Lui/lei manca (He/She’s missed)
- Noi manchiamo (We’re missed)
- Voi mancate (You’re missed)
- Loro mancano (They’re missed)
Since it follows a regular pattern, I am confident you’ll find it easy to conjugate its other verb tenses as well. Give it a try, and let me know how it went!
The only tricky thing you have to keep in mind when conjugating it is that it is an intransitive verb. This means that it might require an indirect object in order for its meaning to be fulfilled.
Let me remind you what Italian indirect objects look like:
- mi: (to) me
- ti: (to) you
- gli/le: (to) him/ her
- ci: (to) us
- vi: (to) you
- gli: (to) them
Of course, the subject of the sentence is the item, person, object that seems somehow to someone. In this sense, its conjugation is very similar to that of servire, piacere and sembrare.
Ci mancano le giornate al mare da bambini.
We miss beach days as children.
Stasera mi mancava Elisa.
Tonight I missed Elisa.
It is important that you remember that you remember the placement of Italian pronouns!
As you can see, in Italian the subject of the sentence is the item, person, object that is missed by someone, and the person experiencing the feeling of missing is expressed by the indirect pronoun.
Of course, if you want to specify that a person misses something, you do not need an indirect object pronoun, but you can use the name of that person. In this case, the indirect object is introduced by the preposition a.
For example:
A Martina mancano i suoi geitori.
Martina misses her parents.
A Enrico e Riccardo manca il mare.
Enrico and Riccardo miss the sea.
How Do I Use “Mancare”?
Basic Expression
You can use the verb “mancare” with the basic meaning of missing someone.
Mi mancano i miei amici.
My friends are missed by me. = I miss my friends.
Ti manca l’Italia?
Do you miss Italy?
In the last sentence, ti manca uses the indirect object pronoun ti (to you) and l’Italia is the subject, indicating what is being missed.
Absence of an Item
You can also use the verb mancare to indicate that something is missing from somewhere.
Manca un bottone dalla camicia.
A button is missing from the shirt.
Here, manca refers directly to the button being absent, with un bottone as the subject.
Missing Pieces or Parts in Context
-Hai finito il puzzle?
–Manca un pezzo.
-Did you finish the puzzle?
-A piece is missing.
Manca un pezzo states the piece as the subject that is missing. As you can see, here there is no need for an indirect pronoun because you are just stating that something is missing, in general.
-Hai letto il libro?
bMi mancano venti pagine.
-Did you read the book?
-I’m missing twenty pages.
Mi mancano refers to the pages (plural) that are absent or yet to be read, and using mi indicates that the speaker is the one experiencing the absence.
Estimating Time or Distance
Just like you can be missing an item, you can be missing amounts, namely time or distance that are remaining.
Quanto manca?
How much longer?
Tra mezz’ora arriviamo.
We’ll be there in half an hour.
Mancano venti chilometri.
Twenty kilometers to go.
These examples use mancare to estimate time or distance remaining. The verb adapts to plural forms when referring to multiple units (like kilometers).
Absence in Various Contexts
Manca la corrente!
The power is out!
Ci siamo quasi tutti. Manca solo Filippo.
We’re almost all here. Only Filippo is missing.
In these sentences, manca denotes the absence of electricity and a person, respectively, showing the flexibility of mancare in indicating what is lacking.
Did You Miss Anything?
Now that you understood the difference between English and Italian, it’ll be easier to understand the use of this versatile verb in Italian. In fact, the verb “mancare” in Italian can cover emotional absence, physical absence, and quantitative deficiencies.
Also know that, since Italians are known for being passionate, we like to emphasize, so you might find the following words right after the verb mancare:
- tanto (a lot)
- tantissimo (so much)
- troppo (too much)
When we miss someone, we miss them a lot!
