French grammar · Intermediate
Manquer in French: Why Tu Me Manques Means I Miss You
Manquer means to miss, but in the emotional sense it reverses the sentence: tu me manques means I miss you, not you miss me. The person who is absent becomes the subject and the person who feels the absence becomes an indirect object, because the verb really means to be lacking to someone.
Tu me manques beaucoup.
I miss you a lot.
What it is
Think of manquer as to be lacking rather than to miss. Once you read it that way, the word order stops looking backwards: tu me manques says you are lacking to me, which is precisely what missing someone feels like. Everything else the verb does — missing a train, lacking patience, something being absent — comes from the same core.
Tu me manques et Paris me manque aussi. — I miss you, and I miss Paris too.
How to spot it
Find the person who is absent. In the emotional meaning, that person is always the grammatical subject, and the one who feels the loss appears as me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur.
- Ma sœur me manque. — I miss my sister.
- Tu lui manques. — He misses you.
- Vous nous manquez. — We miss you.
- Ces étés-là me manquent. — I miss those summers.
If you translate word for word from English you will get the opposite of what you mean, and the sentence will still be grammatical. That is what makes this verb dangerous.
Manquer Quick Reference
The four structures manquer takes
| Structure | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A manque à B | B misses A | tu me manques — I miss you |
| manquer + object | to miss, to not catch | j'ai manqué le train — I missed the train |
| manquer de + noun | to lack | il manque de temps — he's short of time |
| il manque + noun | something is missing | il manque une chaise — a chair is missing |
| il me manque + noun | I'm short of | il me manque dix euros — I'm ten euros short |
| ne pas manquer de + infinitive | not to fail to | ne manque pas de m'écrire — be sure to write |
| manquer à + duty | to fail in | manquer à sa parole — to break one's word |
| manqué (adjective) | failed, missed | une occasion manquée — a missed opportunity |
Common Manquer Examples in French
Manquer in each of its senses:
Missing a Person
- Tu me manques tellement.
- I miss you so much.
- Mes amis me manquent.
- I miss my friends.
- Est-ce que je te manque ?
- Do you miss me?
- Elle manque à toute la famille.
- The whole family misses her.
With a noun rather than a pronoun, the person who feels the loss is introduced by à: elle manque à ses parents.
Missing a Thing or an Event
- J'ai manqué mon train ce matin.
- I missed my train this morning.
- Tu as manqué un beau concert.
- You missed a great concert.
- Il a manqué trois cours cette semaine.
- He missed three classes this week.
- Ne manquez pas la fin du film.
- Don't miss the end of the film.
Here manquer takes a plain direct object and the word order matches English exactly. Only the emotional sense reverses.
Lacking Something
- Cette soupe manque de sel.
- This soup needs salt.
- Il manque de confiance en lui.
- He lacks confidence.
- Nous manquons de place.
- We're short of space.
- Le texte manque de clarté.
- The text lacks clarity.
After manquer de, the noun stands with no article: manquer de temps, manquer d'argent, manquer de patience.
Something Is Missing
- Il manque une page.
- There's a page missing.
- Il manque deux personnes.
- Two people are missing.
- Il me manque un ingrédient.
- I'm missing one ingredient.
- Qu'est-ce qui manque ?
- What's missing?
Il manque is impersonal, so the verb stays singular even when what follows is plural: il manque deux chaises.
How Manquer Works
The conjugation is entirely regular. All the difficulty lives in who occupies which slot.
The Missed Person Is the Subject
In the emotional sense, whoever is absent does the missing, grammatically speaking. Tu me manques puts tu in the subject slot and me in the indirect object slot, giving the sense you are lacking to me.
Mon frère me manque depuis qu'il est parti.
I've missed my brother since he left.
The absent one is the subject.
The Verb Agrees With the Absent Person
Because the subject is the person who is missing, the verb ending follows them, not you. If several people are missing, the verb goes plural even though the feeling is yours alone.
Mes parents me manquent.
I miss my parents.
Plural absent → plural verb.
The Person Who Feels It Is Indirect
That role is filled by à plus a noun, or by the indirect pronouns me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur. This is why you say tu lui manques and never tu le manques.
Tu manques à tes collègues.
Your colleagues miss you.
à + person, or lui / leur.
The Other Senses Behave Normally
When manquer means to fail to catch or to be short of, the sentence has ordinary word order and takes a direct object or de. Only the emotional reading inverts.
Nous avons manqué le début et nous manquions de temps.
We missed the beginning and we were short of time.
Reversal only for missing someone.
The Participle Does Not Agree in the Emotional Sense
Since the person who feels the absence is indirect, there is no preceding direct object to trigger agreement. Elle m'a manqué stays invariable even with a feminine subject.
Elle m'a manqué toute l'année.
I missed her all year.
m'a manqué, never m'a manquée.
Common Mistakes with Manquer
Incorrect: Je te manque beaucoup. — I miss you a lot.
Correct: Tu me manques beaucoup. — I miss you a lot.
The incorrect version is a real sentence, but it means you miss me. The person who is absent has to be the subject, so if you are the one doing the missing, you are the object pronoun.
Incorrect: Tu le manques. — He misses you.
Correct: Tu lui manques. — He misses you.
The person who feels the absence is introduced by à, which makes the pronoun lui or leur. Le and la only appear in the sense of missing a train or an event.
Incorrect: Elle m'a manquée toute l'année. — I missed her all year.
Correct: Elle m'a manqué toute l'année. — I missed her all year.
The m' here is indirect, not a direct object, so nothing triggers agreement. The participle stays invariable no matter who the subject is.
Incorrect: Il manque du sel dans la soupe. — The soup needs salt.
Correct: Il manque de sel dans la soupe. — The soup needs salt.
Manquer de is followed by a bare noun. The partitive du would suggest a specific quantity, and the fixed structure does not allow it.
Manquer Conjugated, With the Roles in Place
Manquer is a regular -er verb, so the endings hold no surprises. The tables below keep the pronouns attached, since that is where the real learning is.
Missing someone, across tenses
The pronoun stays the same and the verb follows the absent person. Here the absent person is tu throughout.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | passé composé |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tu → me | tu me manques | tu me manquais | tu me manqueras | tu m'as manqué |
| tu → te | je te manque | je te manquais | je te manquerai | je t'ai manqué |
| elle → lui | elle lui manque | elle lui manquait | elle lui manquera | elle lui a manqué |
| nous → vous | nous vous manquons | nous vous manquions | nous vous manquerons | nous vous avons manqué |
| vous → nous | vous nous manquez | vous nous manquiez | vous nous manquerez | vous nous avez manqué |
| ils → leur | ils leur manquent | ils leur manquaient | ils leur manqueront | ils leur ont manqué |
The auxiliary is always avoir, and the participle never agrees, because the pronoun in front of it is indirect.
The plain conjugation
Used with a direct object or with de, manquer conjugates like any other -er verb and needs no special handling.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | subjonctif |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je | manque | manquais | manquerai | manque |
| tu | manques | manquais | manqueras | manques |
| il / elle / on | manque | manquait | manquera | manque |
| nous | manquons | manquions | manquerons | manquions |
| vous | manquez | manquiez | manquerez | manquiez |
| ils / elles | manquent | manquaient | manqueront | manquent |
The qu is kept throughout, even before a and o: nous manquons, je manquais. There is no spelling change.
The impersonal il manque
With il as a dummy subject, the verb stays in the third person singular whatever follows it. Adding an indirect pronoun says who is short of the thing.
| Pronoun | il manque | il me manque |
|---|---|---|
| présent | il manque une clé | il me manque une clé |
| imparfait | il manquait une clé | il me manquait une clé |
| futur | il manquera une clé | il me manquera une clé |
| passé composé | il a manqué une clé | il m'a manqué une clé |
| avec un pluriel | il manque deux clés | il me manque deux clés |
| question | qu'est-ce qui manque ? | qu'est-ce qu'il te manque ? |
Il me manque dix euros is the natural way to say I'm ten euros short, and the verb stays singular.
Manquer De, Il Manque, and Near Misses
Three constructions that look similar on the page but answer completely different questions.
Manquer de — lacking a quality
The subject is whoever or whatever is short of something, and the noun after de takes no article. This is one of the reliable places in French where the article disappears.
- Tu manques de patience.
- You lack patience.
- Ce plat manque de sel.
- This dish needs salt.
- Ils manquent d'expérience.
- They lack experience.
- Je manque de sommeil en ce moment.
- I'm short of sleep at the moment.
De elides before a vowel: manquer d'air, manquer d'idées, manquer d'argent.
Il manque — something is absent
The impersonal il puts the missing thing after the verb, which keeps the emphasis on the gap rather than on the object. The verb stays singular regardless.
- Il manque une signature sur le formulaire.
- There's a signature missing on the form.
- Il manque trois élèves aujourd'hui.
- Three pupils are absent today.
- Il ne manque plus que le dessert.
- All that's left is dessert.
- Il me manque encore deux pages à lire.
- I've still got two pages left to read.
Il ne manquait plus que ça is a fixed complaint meaning that's all we needed, said sarcastically.
Near misses and obligations
Manquer de plus an infinitive means to come close to doing something, and manquer à plus a noun means to fail in a duty. Both are more formal than their everyday equivalents.
- J'ai manqué de tomber dans l'escalier.
- I nearly fell down the stairs.
- Il a manqué à sa parole.
- He broke his word.
- Ne manquez pas de nous prévenir.
- Be sure to let us know.
- Elle n'a pas manqué de réagir.
- She was quick to react.
For nearly doing something, spoken French prefers faillir: j'ai failli tomber.
Manquer FAQs
- How do you say I miss you in French?
- Tu me manques, or vous me manquez if you are being formal or addressing several people. The person you miss goes in the subject slot, so the sentence reads literally as you are lacking to me.
- Why is tu me manques the other way round?
- Because manquer means to be lacking, not to feel a lack. The absent person is what is lacking, so they are the subject, and the person left behind is an indirect object. Once you read the verb as to be lacking, the order stops feeling reversed.
- How do you say he misses you?
- Tu lui manques. You are the subject, and lui is the indirect pronoun for him. For a group it is tu leur manques, and with a noun you say tu manques à ton frère.
- What does manquer de mean?
- To lack or to be short of: il manque de temps, tu manques de patience. The noun after de takes no article at all, which is a reliable sign that you are looking at this construction rather than a partitive.
- Is it manquer or rater for missing a train?
- Both are correct. J'ai manqué le train is neutral and slightly formal; j'ai raté le train is what most people say. The two only diverge over exams, where manquer means not turning up and rater means failing.