How to Say “I Miss You” in French

Expressing your feelings to a French speaker is even more meaningful if you can do it in their language. And when distance gets between us and those we love, saying “I miss you” is an essential expression to know. 

In this post, I’ll show you how to say “I miss you” in French, along with some variations like “We miss you” and “I miss you so much.” You’ll soon be able to tell the French speakers in your life how much you want to see them.

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How to Say “I Miss You” in French

The most common way to say “I miss you” in French is:

Tu me manques. (I miss you.)

This phrase uses the French verb manquer (to miss), which comes from the Italian mancare, meaning “to be lacking something.”

The phrase translates literally to “you are missing from me,” using tu (you) as the subject and me (me) as the object, which is the opposite of how we say it in English. 

Going Beyond “Tu Me Manques”

You can take the phrase we just went over and adapt it to any situation involving missing someone.

For example, to say “We miss you,” just swap me with nous: Tu nous manques. This phrase translates literally to “you are missed by us.”

If you want to say “I miss you” to more than one person, you’ll have to conjugate manquer in the vous form:

Vous me manquez. (I miss you [plural]). 

You can also use the phrase in different French verb tenses to express missing someone at different times. For example:

Tu m’as manqué. (I missed you.)

Tu me manqueras. (I will miss you.)

If just a simple “I miss you” isn’t enough to express your level of feeling, you can add an adverb to modify manquer:

Tu me manques tellement. (I miss you so much.)

Tu me manques beaucoup. (I miss you a lot.)

Tu me manques grave. [informal] (I seriously miss you.)

Tu me manques déjà. (I miss you already.)

How to Say “I Miss You, Too” in French

The subject and object positions in the positive response to this statement are also reversed.

So while in English we’d say “I miss you, too,” once again in French, you have to think of it in terms of “You are missing from me, too.” You can say this in a couple of different ways:

Tu me manques aussi.  (I miss you, too.)

Toi aussi tu me manques. (I miss you, too.)

Other Ways to Say “I Miss You” in French

If you’re looking for something beyond manquer, there are other ways to express “I miss you” in French that communicate the same feeling:

J’ai hâte de te voir. (I can’t wait to see you.)

J’ai hâte que tu reviennes. (I can’t wait till you come back.)

J’ai envie de te voir. (I feel like seeing you.)

Sans toi, je ne suis pas bien. (Without you, I’m struggling.)

Je veux être là avec toi. (I want to be there with you.)

Reviens vite. (Come back soon.)

How to Practice Saying “I Miss You” in French

There’s no better way to learn than straight from native French speakers. Paying attention to how they use French expressions for “I miss you” will help you learn the different social cues surrounding them and acquire proper pronunciation.

Here are some great ways to immerse yourself in content from native French speakers: 

• Listen to popular French music. Listening to love songs that feature these expressions, like “Tu me manques” by Nesly, is a good way to get used to how they sound and instill an emotional connection that will help you secure them in your memory. 

• Watch authentic French content. You’re bound to hear this phrase several times in romantic French movies. If you want to consume native content with some learner support, you can use a program like FluentU.

  FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

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• Take advantage of podcasts for French learners. Podcasts and YouTube videos made for learners can be great resources for digging deeper into specific expressions. To learn more about “I miss you” in French, I recommend this episode of the French Your Way podcast.
• Use online tests and exercises. If you’re a kinesthetic learner, practice tests and exercises can be beneficial, especially when it comes to making sense of the grammar and syntax associated with manquer. You can start with this great exercise from Study.com.

 

Now that we’ve gone over the basics, it’s time for you to put what you’ve learned into practice.

Tell a French-speaking friend, family member or special someone that you miss them—in their language! 

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)