3 Ways to Say “I Miss You” in Spanish and How to Respond
Missing someone in your life?
While the best antidote for that is to see them, the next best thing you can do is to express your feelings to them.
If you’re longing for someone who is a native Spanish speaker or in a Spanish-speaking country, the most meaningful way to express your feelings is in Spanish!
So, here is a quick lesson on how to do just that in both Latin American and Castilian Spanish.
Contents
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How to Say “I Miss You” in Spanish
1. Te extraño
This is the most common way to say “I miss you” in Latin American Spanish.
The extended version of this phrase is te extraño a ti (literally, “I miss you to you”). A ti is an object pronoun. It’s not necessary to include it in the phrase since it’s just used to emphasize who you miss.
If you’re talking about missing other people, here’s how it would look:
| Te extraño (a ti/a vos) | I miss you |
| Lo extraño (a él) | I miss him |
| La extraño (a ella) | I miss her |
| Los extraño (a ellos) | I miss them |
| Los extraño (a ustedes/a todos) | I miss you all |
Regresa a mi lado. ¡Te extraño tanto! — Return to my side. I miss you so much!
¿Qué tal está tu hermano? ¡Lo extraño! — How is your brother? I miss him!
¡Feliz Navidad a la familia Hernández! ¡Los extraño a todos! — Merry Christmas to the Hernandez family. I miss everyone!
2. Me haces falta
This way of saying “I miss you” in Spanish isn’t as common, but it can be used the same way as te extraño.
Me haces falta roughly translates to “I am lacking you.”
As Latin culture is traditionally very romantic, me haces falta is also at the forefront of many heartfelt ballads, like this Jennifer Lopez song.
3. Te echo de menos
This is the most common way to say “I miss you” in Spain.
The extended version is te echo de menos a ti (I miss you to you). As mentioned above, a ti is the object pronoun and is not necessary to include in the phrase.
Here’s how you’d refer to other people:
| Te echo de menos (a ti) | I miss you |
| Le echo de menos (a él) | I miss him |
| La echo de menos (a ella) | I miss her |
| Los echo de menos (a ellos) | I miss them |
| Los echo de menos (a ustedes/a todos) | I miss you all |
¿Cuándo regresas, mi amor? Te echo de menos. — When are you coming back, my love? I miss you.
Tu hija está creciendo muy rápido. La echo de menos muchísimo. — Your daughter is growing very fast. I miss her so much.
¿Cómo van los niños en la escuela? Los echo de menos a todos. — How are the kids doing in school? I miss them all.
How to Respond to “I Miss You”
In Latin America, you can respond to “Te extraño” by saying:
Y yo, a ti. — And I, you.
Yo también te extraño. — I miss you too.
In Argentina and some other South American regions, it is more common to use vos.
So, to respond to “Te extraño a vos,” you can say:
Y yo, a vos. — And I, you.
Yo también te extraño (a vos). — I miss you too.
And in Spain, you can say either of the following in response to “Te echo de menos”:
Y yo, a ti. — And I, you.
Yo tambien te echo de menos. — I miss you too.
To really master this exchange, of course, you’ll need to practice!
Next time your grandma in Guatemala tells you she misses you, you can respond in Spanish to let her know the feeling is mutual. Or, reach out to your foreign-exchange friend who is back home in Spain to tell them they’re missed!
Haven’t found the perfect Spanish language partner yet? No worries. You can also review how to say and respond to “I miss you” in Spanish with videos on YouTube, or language learning programs like FluentU.
FluentU offers authentic Spanish-language videos on the website and app so you can see, hear and practice Spanish phrases as much as you like. The interactive subtitles will let you see a word or phrase in additional contexts as well so you can better understand the nuances of its use.
Plus, the iOS and Android apps make it easy to practice whenever you’ve got some down time. The more you practice, the more confident you’ll feel saying “I miss you” in Spanish—among other things.
Now don’t waste another minute. Tell the people you miss that you miss them!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
