I miss you in French is tu me manques (tew muh MAHNK), literally "you are missing to me". The person who is missed is the subject, so the word order feels back to front to English speakers. To someone you call vous, or to several people, say vous me manquez. Je te manque means the opposite: you miss me.
- I miss you (tu)
- tu me manques
- I miss you (vous / plural)
- vous me manquez
- I missed you
- tu m'as manqué
- We miss you
- tu nous manques
- Level
- A1
Why is tu me manques back to front?
The verb manquer works like "to be lacking". In tu me manques, "you" are what is lacking, and "me" is the person who feels the gap. Think of it as "you are missing from me" and the order makes sense. Swap the pronouns and the meaning flips.
| French | Literally | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Tu me manques | You are missing to me | I miss you |
| Je te manque | I am missing to you | You miss me |
| Il me manque / Elle me manque | He / she is missing to me | I miss him / her |
| Tu nous manques | You are missing to us | We miss you |
| Vous me manquez | You (vous) are missing to me | I miss you (polite or plural) |
| Paris me manque | Paris is missing to me | I miss Paris |
The same back-to-front rule works for places and things. Use it with la France me manque (I miss France) or le soleil me manque (I miss the sun).
How do you say I missed you?
Put manquer in the passé composé: tu m'as manqué. It is the line for a reunion at the station or the door. The participle never changes: me is an indirect object (missing to me), so it is tu m'as manqué whether you say it to a man or a woman.
Tu m'as tellement manqué !
I missed you so much!
Tu me manques beaucoup.
I miss you a lot.
Mes parents me manquent.
I miss my parents.
Plural subject, so the verb is plural: manquent.
Est-ce que je te manque ?
Do you miss me?
Reviens vite.
Come back soon.
What else can you say to someone you miss?
French speakers rarely send tu me manques on its own. It comes wrapped in other phrases about thinking of someone and wanting to see them again.
Je pense à toi.
I'm thinking of you.
J'ai hâte de te voir.
I can't wait to see you.
Vivement qu'on se revoie !
I can't wait until we see each other again!
On t'attend.
We're waiting for you.
Does manquer mean miss a train too?
Yes, though with a normal word order: j'ai manqué le train (I missed the train). In conversation, rater is more common for trains and buses: j'ai raté mon bus. Manquer can also mean "to fail to notice": impossible à manquer, impossible to miss.
In Québec you will also hear je m'ennuie de toi for I miss you; in France, s'ennuyer usually means "to be bored". For the stronger feeling, see how to say I love you in French.
Read A1 French stories and tap any word, manquer included, to see what it means in context.
Read free in your browserFrequently asked questions
How do you pronounce tu me manques?
Say "tew muh MAHNK". Tu uses the French u (lips rounded, saying "ee"), me is a light "muh", and manques has a nasal vowel with no n sound, ending on a clear k. The final -es is silent.
Is je te manque the same as I miss you?
No, it is the opposite. Je te manque means "you miss me". The person who is missed always comes first in French.
How do you say I miss you so much in French?
Tu me manques tellement or tu me manques énormément. Tu me manques beaucoup is a little milder.
How do you say I miss you to a group?
Vous me manquez, for example to friends back home or to your family. To say we all miss you, it is tu nous manques (one person) or vous nous manquez (several).
Why is there an s on manques?
Because the subject is tu, and verbs take -s with tu: tu manques. With il or elle it is il me manque, without the s.