The verb manquer is often very troublesome for English speakers of French because its structure is reversed when it applies to emotions compared to events.
Look at these sentences with the verb manquer in an emotional sense:
When using manquer in the emotional sense, you must reverse the structure so it is the person or thing that is lacking to you:
-> It's not Lise misses you. anymore, but literally You are lacking to Lise.
-> It's not I miss her, but literally She is lacking to me.
-> It's not He misses me, but literally I am lacking to him.
Now the 'missed' person or thing become the one doing the action of 'lacking'.
Introducing the person who is missing someone, who is "lacking" someone
You either use manquer à + [name]:
or indirect pronouns me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur before manquer :
It is different when talking about missing an event or a train, or lacking something in a pragmatic way.
See Manquer (de) + thing = To miss / lack something
As for using indirect pronouns, see Me, te, nous, vous = Me, you, us, you (direct and indirect object pronouns) and Replacing people with lui, leur = him, her, them (indirect object pronouns)
Want to make sure your French sounds confident? We’ll map your knowledge and give you free lessons to focus on your gaps and mistakes. Start your Braimap today »